The Hunter of Zero (Rei no Karyudo)
by MundusExVoce
Summary: Louise summons Yuuto, a Monster Hunter. This story is about the cultural tension of a hierarchial fantasy world with magic and the pristine society of a world living by the survival of the fittest. The pair of mage and hunter will be the bridge between the two frontiers. Maybe love will blossom in this new world. [Rated T for violence and language, but may change because of lemons]
1. Prologue: You need two for a dance

Prologue: You need two for a dance

The sun was merciless in its assault on the skin in the plains of the Jurassic Frontier, hanging there high up like a foreboding, glistering guillotine. The field was drenched in sunlight letting people view an ocean of light, mossy green with isles of darker shades of fern popping up here and there, with giant palm trees arching over the scene lending some strained souls the gentle, cool embrace of the shadows.

That was not the case for Yuuto, the only shadow he braced for was not a friendly one. A winged, salmon orange lizard twice as big as a grown man towered and casted a dark mantle over him with its deep blue wings spread out, before it slammed down its yellow, oversized hammer beak on the ground where Yuuto's feet were placed seconds ago.

He had rolled forwards escaping the earth crushing impact landing him between the legs of the lizard underneath the belly. He steadied his curved blade in his left and readied his round iron shield in his right hand. Seconds later he unleashed a fury of sword swings ending it with a horizontal round slash by spinning his entire body.

"Huyah, eat this, Roundforce!" he shouted at the top of his lungs.

A bright flash of lightning circled around Yuuto clashing against the large-eared wyvern, which fell to side caused by the force of Yuuto's blade. Unrelenting he stepped up the pace of his swings wailing mercilessly on the hide of the reptile. Yuuto was ready to finish it, but the wyvern picked itself up swiping him with its long whip like tail and sending him off a dozens of steps flying.

"Ouch!" he gasped as he rolled through the dirt before he got hold of himself again and raised himself up.

The wyvern was literally fuming with flames. Little puffs of smoke and ember were flaring up out of its large open beak. Erupting with fury, it stomped on the ground with its three clawed feet and flapping its wings widely and hysterically.

"It seems you're also ready to finish this little dance," remarked Yuuto in silence as he loudly gulped a small glass bottle of Mega-Potion in seconds down his dry throat.

With a loud satisfying "ah~" he wiped his lips, flexed his arm muscles and threw the empty vessel to the side, which shattered on the ground with clear clinking noise.

Few seconds later Yuuto felt the potions curative effects flowing through his body. His tired muscles and battle-weary bones were instantly rejuvenated and made his skin crawl like he just jumped into the ice cold waters of some cool down pools in Pokke.

The wyvern now calm, but no less fiery, dug its claw deep into the ground before launching itself as a giant, orange, scaly battering ram towards Yuuto with fireballs spitted out left and right.

He, knowing that was a desperation move, got cocky. Instead of evading the rush by rolling to the side or defending against it by planting his feet and standing his ground to brace for the impact, he dashed forwards sprinting with his full speed.

Yuuto wanted to land one heavy, skull crushing downward slash on his reptilian rival's big, beaked head finishing it off as fast and flashy as possible.

In the moments he reached the perfect range for the decisive strike and he tensed his muscles to leap forwards, his view was flooded by blinding turquoise light. Though confused, he ignored it and just let his years of fighting and hunting experience take over his body to lead him to his earned victory.

-X-

The Tristain Academy of Magic was one, if not the most distinguished institution for educating young mages from all around Halkeginia.

Although it was hardly as exciting as it sounds. The first year mostly consisted of theoretical studies about the underlying mechanics of Brimiric Magic.

Classification of spells and their distinguishing characteristics, which were put to tests in written exams, were drilled into these young heads as it was of utmost importance to a mage to identify and analyse a spell even in the midst of battle.

But practical training and applications were not neglected. Throughout the year the young students had weekly incantation practices. Just like a knight let their body memorise the moves and swings of sword and shield, so did a mage discipline their mind and wand be ready to command magic.

All of this culminated into the Ceremony of the Springtime Familiar Summoning of the second year, a more than thousand year old tradition that was meant to be the next step to the mastery of magic by making a mystical creature submit itself to the wants and needs of their new young masters and therefore prove the strength of their willpower.

And just like every other year, a new batch of eager young students was assembled in the Vestri Courtyard awaiting the permission to call out to their novel personal servant.

The person with this authority was present Professor Jean Colbert, a large man in his forties wearing a dark blue robe with white hems reaching down to his feet. His hair had receded to make space for the lack of hair in form of a dome glistening in the sunlight.

A feature, which did not belittle the respect of his students for wisdom and kindness reflected in his blue eyes behind his plain round glasses.

"I welcome you all and congratulate you all to your second year at the Magic Academy of Tristain," he greeted all attending students with stretched arms, one empty and the other gripping a torch-like staff.

"As tradition commands, you promising mages shall be tested in the sacred ritual of the Springtime Summoning ceremony. Your duty is to call forth a familiar, a partner that will accompany you on the rest of your life as a mage. It will be your servant, your guardian and more importantly your friend!"

"But enough of speeches," he declared.

"I will instruct you on the summoning procedure. Do not worry. I ensure you it is neither elaborated nor strenuous. In fact it is very simple. You just have to recite an incantation in your words," he laid out smiling with a nodding head.

"But do not be full of reckless haste, choose your words wisely. Present yourself with sincerity, severity and solemnity. Pay respect in regard to your imminent partner but more importantly to yourself. Do not pretend, just believe in yourself!" he concluded his instructions with an honest advice.

"Now, who is going to make the first step?"

Soon magical creatures heard but not seen to many students appeared among the gathering increasing in number with each unique oration proudly vocalised.

* * *

Writer's comment:

Yuuto is Saito but as a Monster Hunter. This distinction convinced me to use a different name. So I fused Saito with Yuuji, the other anime protagonist with a red/pink-haired love interest with blazing temperament.

The move pool of the hunters will be derived from MHX or MHGen.

If there are any mistakes in my English, I apologize. I am not a native speaker.

Please, if you have a complaint or comments of criticism do me a favour and utter them.

This is my first piece of creative writing. As an amateur author any guidance is welcomed.


	2. Chapter 1: Louise de la Vallière

Chapter 1: Louise de la Vallière

Among the smiling and laughing meeting of master and menservant stood Louise de la Vallière, a small, petite, cute critter of a girl. She wore the standard uniform of the Tristain Magic Academy.

An outfit consisting of a hooded cape reaching down to the ankles in brown, black or purple, which was determined by the educational year, draped over a white cotton shirt or blouse depending on the gender of the student.

A small golden sphere of brass with a pentagram engraving either tied up the cape or functioned as a knot for a simple tie.

The lower half was covered either by modest trousers or knee high skirts, again depending on the wearer, in the same shade as the cape above. For shoes most students opted for simple leather shoes for all possible occasions.

For personal touches she added some black stockings, which embraced her legs just over her knees, letting her pale skin exposed between the dark stockings and her skirt.

But her most attention grabbing feature was her flowing pink hair falling down to her waist, which looked like a fur out of cotton candy. Matching her hair were the colour of her eyes giving of the appearance of embedded rose quartz. She was quite a beauty with her puppy eyes and small crisp lips, even with her lack of certain curves for her age.

She crossed her arms hugging herself with her small, delicate hands. She was gripped by anxiety forcing her to silently watch by the side-lines. She was nervous about another disastrous failure of attempt to cast magic. She had considered Professor Colbert's words, but she was not sure how to express her wish. Especially the last part of believing in oneself concerned her.

But before she had any chance to formulate any words resembling a summoning incantation of her desire, the loud, boastful, and high pitched voice of a large and curved figure of a young woman approaching disturbed Louise's concentration with three particular words.

"Louise the Zero!" called Kirche von Anhalt-Zerbst her out.

She also wore the uniform of the academy, but on her it looked a little bit tighter.

Differences between her and Louise, aside the obvious disparity in size as she was almost a foot taller than her, were her style of clothing.

She opted to use the brass sphere as an additional support to hold her cape, therefore freeing her neck and letting admirers catch a glimpse into her substantial cleavage. Instead her neck was adorned with a gleaming, golden ring.

Like Louise her most striking feature was her fiery red hair chest long hair, which contrasted pleasantly with her sunbathed tanned bronze skin, an appropriate appearance for an ardent admirer of the hot, blazing element.

Suitably eye catching were her ruby-like eyes of a lovely matured, sultry face featuring equally tempting voluminous, glossy and rose coloured lips.

Instead of the normal leather shoes, she wore tight, dark beige leather boots with hefty heels going up her legs just a few inches before her dark skirt complementing her smooth, long legs.

"What kind of familiar did you summoned?" asked Kirche gleefully.

"Oh, what's that? Did you summon some hot air? You truly are the daughter of Karin of the Heavy Wind."

"Shut up, Zerbst! I have not finished my preparations yet," excused Louise herself.

"Oh really, maybe Tabitha here can help you?"

The Redhead stepped aside to reveal a smaller, slender girl that seemed had stood behind her the entire time.

She wore like everyone else the same attire of the academy. Her setup even resembled Louise's taste the most. The only difference were the length of her cape, which touched the ground, probably dragging it across, when she walked around, and wearing snow white pantyhose instead of stockings.

Even the figure of their bodies was similar. But the light, pastel blue hair kept in short bob cut helped distinguishing her from Louise aside the enormous hooked, wooden staff and thick book she was always carrying. In the later she usual sunk her half open, turquoise eyes through the elliptic lenses of her red, bottom framed spectacles.

Now she looked up to Louise in front of her before she silently focused her attention back to the book.

"It seems Tabitha isn't interested. What a pity, she just has summoned a young wind dragon, you know."

"What!" gasped Louise full of surprise, "R-re-really, that … that is quite impressive, indeed! I have to congratulate you, Tabitha!"

"For your information, I have summoned a salamander," bragged Kirche and pointed downwards to a ruby red scaled lizard hued in flames in the size of a dog.

"I named him 'Flame'."

"Very original, Zerbst."

"I doubt that you could even summon a fly even with Tabitha's help," taunted an approaching girl with golden ringlets hanging from her head from the side.

On the front two small fringes broke the monotony of her forehead. On the back of her head she featured a large deep red bow. Her youthful face was sprinkled with freckles accenting her bright blue eyes.

She wore a mix of Louise's and Tabitha's outfit, which suited her giving her similar build, her upper body was covered like Louise but wore pantyhose like Tabitha except brown in colour.

"Oh, Montmorency, fancy meeting you here," greeted her Kirche with a smile.

"Tsk, it's just the Flood," hissed Louise in response.

"Hey, I heard that Vallière!"

Tabitha just ignored everything like usual and kept on reading.

"My, my … why so hostile, why can't we all just enjoy this merry meeting?" tried to mediate the golden haired boy accompanying Montmorency and pointing a rose towards the gathering.

Complementing his flamboyant and extravagant appearance he wore a modified version of the male uniform.

The plain white shirt was replaced with a poet shit with striking collar, puffed out sleeves and large frills placed on his forearm and button line on the front. The brassy sphere was nowhere in sight, in its stead was a window to his chest and the cape was held in its place with a strap across his bare chest. Two golden clips marked the end of the strap.

His lower half wore simple loose purple pants with two snow white leather shoes framing his feet.

He himself styled his blonde, wavy hair in a simple, short haircut that still let his hair flow down to cover his sky blue eyes.

"Guiche de Gramont," greeted him Louise.

"How are you faring with Montmorency?"

"Ha ha, splendid, thank you for your concern."

He grasped Montmorency by the hips before he drew closer with his face making her blush.

But he was not able to bridge the distance as Kirche interrupted them.

"Boring, who's interested in that? What's more important is what kind of familiar you summoned?"

"Ah … ye-yes, my fa-familiar," stuttered Guiche trying to gain composure.

"This here is my beautiful Verdandi."

The ground grumbled beneath their feet before a giant brown mole burst out of the earth. It had a small blue triangle on its forehead.

"And this here is Robbin," pointed Montmorency out and directed her wand towards her right shoulder, which was the sitting place for small, bright yellow frog that could fit in someone's hand.

"Nice, nice!" appraised Kirche in delight.

"That means Louise here is the only one left without a familiar."

"I was just ready to summon my familiar before you all broke my concentration by assaulting me."

"Oh yeah, really?" teased her Kirche dripping with doubt.

"Now have everyone finished the summoning process and completed the familiar binding contract?" interrupted the bellowing voice of Professor Colbert their little argument.

"Professor Colbert, I think, Louise here hasn't summoned her familiar yet," shouted Kirche excited in response.

"Now show us that great dragon familiar you promised," she whispered immediately downwards to Louise.

"Mademoiselle Vallière, you say? Then I implore you to hurry with performance of the summoning. We do not have all day to sit idle. Otherwise I have to expel you from the academy in response to any resistance."

Louise de Vallière was now the centre of everyone's attention and soon the air was loaded with masked whisperings of the students surrounding her.

"Louise the Zero? I don't think this will end well."

"Why is she still even here? I thought she failed the first year."

"Isn't this dangerous, letting her try out such a powerful spell in front of us?"

"We can hope it's enough space here to dampen the explosion."

"Excuse me, could someone switch place with me! I don't want to die yet!"

Louise ignored the cacophony of casual slander around her and focused her willpower. She remembered Professor Colbert's words and decided to be honest to herself. She fished the words, which she came up with before, out of the dark ocean of doubt and denial and mustered all her courage and confidence.

She pointed the wand in her right hand towards the bright blue sea sprinkled with pristine clouds above her and wished.

"I beg of you …," she prayed silently in anguished distress.

"My servant that dwells among the stars in this vast universe," she called out with all the strength her lungs could release.

"Oh, pristine, beautiful and powerful spirit," she desired more than anything else in the moment.

"I wish and plead from the depths of my heart …," she admitted full of sincerity, shame and self-reflection.

"Please, heed my call and answer to my guidance," she cried out for relief and redemption.

The courtyard was filled with blinding light and a great power forced the air and earth to tremor with heat and pressure.

* * *

Writer's comment:

I hope the opening act was a success. I may have been a little bit melodramatic at the end, but I thought I need to express the raw, hidden emotions of Louise behind her fiery exterior.

Please, comment anything you can, whether it is a compliment or a critique.

This is my first piece of creative writing. As an amateur author any guidance is welcomed.


	3. Chapter 2: Yuuto from Yukumo

Chapter 2: Yuuto from Yukumo

The explosion set off a cloud of dust and dirt into the air floating between the collection of people and the myriads of magical beings in the Vestri Courtyard.

A series of coughing groans echoed in the chaos with occasional outburst of surprised pain from tumbling students, who wandered off without wider thought, despite their impaired vision.

Their familiars were more disciplined and remained at their master's side but were just as loud as they tried to aid them in this state of confusion.

Amidst the cacophony of chaos, a skin crawling sorrowful cry filled the ears of everyone from above and draconic shadow approached Louise before it burst out of the curtains of smoke and dust revealing its nature.

"No way!" exclaimed the redheaded Kirche with duped and shocked face in response to this at least two men tall winged lizard.

"Hah, I've told you, I would summon a dragon!" declared the rose coloured Louise excited.

She was not sure if it was a real dragon, though. She had a hard time to describe it, but for her it was too cute. Not the same cuteness in vein of Tabitha's Sylphid, which had all the features in right proportions despite its youthfulness.

This dragon's pale yellow head featured an oversized beak and large two fan-like ears and big, amber coloured puppy eyes. Instead of the usual two wings and four legs, this crippled lizard had only wings and two hind legs, but its long whip-like tail balanced it. The deep marine shaded wings contrasted nicely to the glowing orange, pink scales of its body.

The disproportion would look ugly in most cases, but here it worked and gave this two thirds of a dragon its bizarre charm.

Mesmerised by the appearance of her first true success of great magic and deep in thought about a possible name of her new pet, she did not pay any attention to the wonky wobbling of the dragon as it suddenly lost composure. It collapsed and gravitated towards its supposed master.

"Oi, Zero, get out of there!" warned the enflamed Kirche with genuine concern and worry in her cry.

"Hurry, Louise!"

Louise ticked off by her unwanted nickname finally realised the incoming danger and she leaped forwards with all the might her small, slender figure could muster up. With a dull thud she landed in mother earth's not very gentle embrace just a few steps from the now motionless winged lizard.

"You're all right, Vallière?" asked a red hued figure and stretched an open hand towards the little lady in the dirt and in pain.

"Thanks, Zerbst," she responded calmly and took the offering help with gratitude raising her up on her shaking feet before she exploded in anger.

"You stupid, crippled lizard! For Founder's sake I almost died here! Pay attention the next time you want to take a nap!"

"I don't think there's a next time, Vallière," pointed Kirche out with her wand directed at the large, orange reptile.

"What do you mean, Zerbst?" hissed Louise.

"I mean it isn't napping!"

She waved her wand in a fluid, circular motion with a twist of her right wrist. Small clumps of dirt and debris lying around the whole court hovered above the ground floating towards the face of the beaked beast. Each little ball of earth collided on the scales of the reptile with little but clear noises of "plonk~" or "plop~" cascading into a stream of sounds similar to the rhythm of a traditional drum play of some clans found in Germania.

Even with all the commotion and abuse the orange lizard endured, it still laid there inert as a rock in the mountains of southern Tristain.

"It's dead, Vallière," declared the Redhead sober.

As she uttered those words, Louise and Kirche realised what was going to unfold. Louise clasped her ears with her delicate hands to cut off her hearing in vain as a gleeful smirk took form on Kirche's smug face.

"Of course would Louise be the one to summon a dead familiar. That's Louise the Zero for you!" she let out loudly with a high pitched laugh full of sardonic schadenfreude and her ample chest presented proudly to the masses.

"Shut up, shut up, shut up!" grimaced Louise in response to the surrounding crowd going off in cruel enjoyment, which reddened her teary-eyed face of a little, cute critter in uncomfortable embarrassment because of the shame of another failure in a long streak.

But the amused laughter was suddenly silenced as a voice echoed over the school of surprised faces.

"Hey, look. There is a person on the ground!"

The attention shifted and the eyes of the curious mages found indeed an unconscious person lying on the ground a dozen steps from the corpse of the supposed familiar accompanied by a curved, jagged and thick short sword, a small heavy shield looking like a straightened iron bowler, a large backpack resembling a sack commoners used for their harvest with many little pockets aligned on it in symmetric fashion.

"What?!" shouted Professor Colbert in obvious concern with a stern and serious expression.

"In what kind of condition is the student now?"

"I don't know, but I don't think he's actually a student."

The person had to everyone's surprise indeed nothing in common with the thick circle of young mages that gawked at his resting body cladded in jungle green feather armour.

The young man, who by his stature and the looks of his chiselled face looked older than most students, carried himself in light and lofty suit out of feathers of various green and yellow shades, grey white and maroon fabric with silver armour parts of dense steel laid over the clothing.

Beside his resting head sat a bright green fedora, which had its side and back rose up more than the norm exposing the maroon underside and giving it a narrower, sharper appearance.

The top of the dome was laid with rows of yellow tipped, green feathers with the last one of longer darker feathers flaring up at the rear.

On the front part of the brim was cut out to give it a small duck beak adding to the streamlined form. Also a small two finger width maroon headband ran around the hat with a small silver ornament at the front hiding the knot. The finishing touch was a large bright yellow plume arching over the hat to the back from the right side of the hat.

The torso was protected by three lines of defence. At the base laid a grey white, wool gambeson from his waist to the neck and wrist. Over it was a basic, black leather jerkin covering the stomach and chest with a form fitting silver cuirass of iron on the top as the last piece.

Over the shoulders was a waist long cape hung over similar to the magic students, but it was not made out of one piece of clothing rather multiple large, green feathers with a pale yellow trim. It also was not a simple square but was cut into the shape of a single verdant wing with three leaf-like tips, all pointing towards his left side.

The hood, adjustable with a yellow cord, was also shared, exposing the maroon padding in the case of the wing cape.

The hands were covered with straightforward green, maroon gloves decorated with feathers to protect the forearms.

As pointed out by the cape the left side was heavily more guarded, which also applied to the left arm. Over the glove was a grey steel gauntlet and the rest was also decked with armour panels ending into a massive left shoulder piece.

It was plain shoulder guard, a form fitting round plate, but with two triangle disks, the large one as big as his head, concluding it by spiking out in a 45 degree angle.

The lower half wore a simple padded maroon trouser, with a blackened inner thigh area.

A grey white knee sock was strapped over his feed covered by black leather boots with sharp metal tips at the front. The knees were protected with large, edged iron knee caps with feather padding underneath sticking out.

The waist was also left heavy with a green, yellow feather skirt similar to the cape having an oversized left wing covered by silver skirt armour with a moving angular panel like an elongated pentagon hanging over the left thigh on the back and front, which had a large red shield symbol painted on it.

In return the right side of his waist was spacious enough to be decorated with few small pockets on the brown leather belt holding the skirt in place.

After a moment of silence Professor Colbert snapped back to his calm composure and commanded:

"Students stay back and let me attend to him!"

He scooped through the waves of students before arriving at the epicentre of the attention. He kneeled to his right side so that the young man's shoulder guard would not obstruct his view on him. Professor Colbert hung his right hand over his sleeping face. He could feel the faint beat of his breath.

"Good, he's not dead," he thought in relief.

Next he placed the side of his head on the young man's chest after he moved the chest plate of his armour a bit to the side, so his ear was not obstructed by it. And like before he could he hear the rhythm of heart pumping.

"Thank the Founder, also no irregularities with the heart."

He returned to his kneeling position at his patient's side.

"There seems to be no external wounds, but injuries on the inside like fractured bones or bleeding organs are beyond the range of my judgement," he pondered for a second, but he already knew his decision.

He got up supporting one half of his body with his wooden staff. Then he let his keen eyes wander through the sea of various expressions before he snapped his staff in his right hand pointing towards a youthful, bespectacled boy slight in build with orange coloured hair at the far rear of the gathering.

"Monsieur Reynald d'Aramitz! Please, head immediately towards the sick bay and inform the head nurse of this unconscious person. If you stumble upon any servants on the way, tell them to bring a stretcher, otherwise do it after your presence in the sick bay," he commanded with his respected authority.

The startled boy let out a loud "Yes" before he ran off into one of many large, bricked buildings of the academy leaving the rest of his fellow students with the strange guest on the ground.

* * *

Writer's comment:

Tell me, if the start is too slow. Then I will try to pick up the pace after chapter five as I have written five chapters by now and I personally like them.

Also was my description of the armour or any appearance too long or too detailed, please comment on this because I am not so sure.

Any comment regardless of praise or disdain will appreciated, just be precise.

This is my first piece of creative writing. As an amateur author any guidance is welcomed.


	4. Chapter 3: Lost in translation

Chapter 3: Lost in translation

From the dark depths of his slumber Yuuto's consciousness emerged pulling back every strand of memory, experience and personality. He could feel his senses return and his whole body welcoming him back in the physical world with numbed pain, but the reigns was still not in his mental hands.

His eyes were still shut, so he instead relied on his nose and ears. The air around him was in uproar. He could hear vague but loud chatter and whisper around him. He could make out the distinct voices of people, but the tongue the voices spoke in were strangers to his ears.

"[Who is this, a noble?]"

"[No way, look. Those are a sword and shield. A noble has no need for these things.]"

"[A commoner then, huh? That's quite a fancy outfit for such a low-life.]"

"[Maybe he hails from an affluent merchant family.]"

"[Yeah, the wealth of some of those could rival some noble's riches. By Brimir, some of them indeed bought the title of a noble in Germania.]"

"[Doesn't look like a merchant, though. What kind of merchant needs weapons like these?]"

"[Some kind of soldier, I suppose. A sellsword is probably more likely.]"

Additionally to the unrecognisable murmur he could make out the salty, sour scent of sweat among the earthly mix of wet, fresh grass behind his back and the dry, dusty dirt fluttering on his front. By the intensity of the sweaty odour Yuuto ascertained that he was surrounded by a group of people unknown to him. He also guessed that his orange target rotted not far from him as he noticed the faint but incomparable rusty iron flavour of blood in the background of the other aromas.

The numbing pain in his limbs also has subsided by now, although he still felt heavy and sore all around like getting sucker-punched by a hip check of a Plesioth. He shuddered by the very thought of it as he reminisced some of his earlier encounters with one in the desert or the jungle.

Quickly abandoning those nightmarish memories he instead tried to open his eyes and was greeted by the radiant smile of a sun at high-noon. Irritated he groaned loudly followed by a snapping flinch of both his arms to cover his sensitive eyes from the cruel sunlight.

His unoccupied ears registered a shift from casual whisper in the background to shocked gasps and cries.

"[By Brimir, did you see that? He just moved.]"

"[Then he's all right, right? Maybe he can talk. I am eager to know, what happened.]"

"[I am glad that it's nothing serious. A dead person, even a meagre commoner, isn't something I wished for my second year here.]"

After a moment Yuuto's vision adjusted to the bright daylight and he raised his torso up. Sitting upright with his right hand resting on the knee of his angled right leg and his left hand stemmed on a damp, leafy fleece of a meadow he was faced with a crowd of youngsters around him staring at him in shock or out of curiosity.

They were all clothed in a caped uniform with various minor differences and chattering agitated.

"[The commoner woke up!]"

"[He looks weird. I mean, aren't his eyes too small?]"

"[Maybe he's not from Halkeginia? You know. A foreigner.]"

"Where in Gog's name am I now? Where are all the palm trees?" thought Yuuto aloud as he ignored the crowd and realised the change in scenery.

The youngsters fell silent before the background murmur returned.

"[Did the commoner just spoke?]"

"[What kind of language is that gibberish?]"

"[I heard from my parents that the people of Rub' al Khali have a strange tongue.]"

But again the prattle was cut short. This time by a harrumphing, loud bark from Yuuto's right side.

"[Silence please! Enough of this chatter, this is still a lesson!]" let the bespectacled, robbed man with balding head out as he rose from his kneeling position to his feet.

Startled by the unnoticed person at his right side Yuuto jerked his body and hopped back a few inches out of surprise.

"Gogdammit! Don't scare me like a bunch of Giggis in the dark!" he exploded in anger for a moment but settled down immediately as his curiosity took hold of him.

"Are you a researcher from the Wycademy? What's with all these people? Is this some kind of excursion for young apprentices?"

Instead hearing answers his ears shifted to the beat of four people running towards him and the maybe Wycademy researcher.

"[Here is it, Madame Head nurse!]" shouted short boy in glasses garbed like the other gawking youngsters leading the group of four.

He was followed by an elder woman dressed in a long, immaculate white robe. Her hair was bound in a bun. Not far off were an older man and a young girl carrying a stretcher.

The man was clad in dirty white uniform speckled with smeared marks of various shades. His head was crowned with a puffed out, elongated hat and a red scarfed encircled the large man's brown skinned neck. Yuuto to his visibly pleasant surprise recognized the outfit of a chief cook.

At the rear end of the arriving stretcher was the young girl wearing an ebony uniform overlaid with a long apron, fancy collar and sleeves in addition to a fabric head crown, everything in ivory white. The only other colour in this monochrome costume was a yellow orange fan out scarf around her ample bust. And again Yuuto cheerfully recognized this pattern of clothing. However he remembered it with different colouring.

"Is that a new uniform for a Receptionist of the Guild? If so, is this girl with the Guild …" speculated Yuuto silently and examined the young girl thoroughly.

She had the same silky black hair as him but it was sharply cut at chin length with loose fringes covering her forehead. She also had the blue eyes like him, but her large eyes were clouded making more a blueish grey instead of his deep marine blue. Yuuto was not sure, but he felt some kind of familiarity from her.

"Maybe a parent of hers moved out of Yukumo," he speculated with a frown before he loosened up and shrugged nonchalantly.

"It doesn't hurt to ask her later! For now, I keep still and try to get some information out of this mess."

He crossed his legs to make it comfortable for him as he straightened his spine to observe the people in front of him. His hands rested on his thighs like he did when he meditated in his little room before a great and lengthy hunt.

The maybe researcher from his jump scare earlier turned to the white robbed woman and greeted her.

"[Ah, thank you for coming here. But I am afraid to inform you it was in vain. The young man seems to have recovered. I apologize for the inconvenience,]" he said in a friendly manner.

"[Thank the Founder! You don't know how much trouble it would have caused me and the other nurses. Our little sick bay here is not the best equipped department of this academy,]" answered the old woman relieved.

"[Yes, I am well aware of it. I will notice this in my report to Principal Osmond later. You can return back. You two as well,]" pointed the robbed man with his torch-like staff out.

And the group of three disappeared in the sea of people.

"[Now back to business, we still have to wrap up the ceremony of the Springtime Summoning,]" he directed to the surrounding youngsters.

"[Mademoiselle Vallière! Please, finish your summoning.]"

The attention of the masses shifted from Yuuto and was focused on a slender, pink haired girl behind him. He turned his body while still remaining seated on the ground as he saw the girl approaching him and the robbed man at his left now.

"[Professor Colbert, I deeply apologize for my failure. By Brimir, I will not disappoint you again,]" shrieked the young girl in earnest.

"[There is no need for a second summoning,]" said the man calmly causing all colours of the girl in front of him to fade out of her horrified and teary face.

"[Do not worry. I will not expel you, if that thought crossed your mind.]"

"[Re-Really?]" asked the girl timidly as she wiped the little tear drops off the corner of her eyes that had formed in response.

"[All you need to do is to proceed with the familiar contract,]" instructed the balding man.

"[But how, my familiar stranded dead on this ground,]" she barely breathed out because she tried to quell the urged to cry.

"[Yes, that dragon is now gone, but this young man here is doing well it seems,]" he pointed out with his staff in Yuuto's direction.

"Hey, be careful, old man!" shouted Yuuto because of the uncomfortable closeness of the stick to his face.

"[What? I mean. I beg your pardon?]" exclaimed the young girl shocked and startled.

"[You suggest that I form a contract with this commoner!]"

She took out a thin, delicate, and little wooden stick and aimed at Yuuto's head, almost stabbing one of his eyes out, if he did not reacted respectively by swaying his head to the side.

"Oi, be careful, little girl. I still have a need for my eyes. Learning to gun isn't easy if you're blind," he yelled in anger.

"[Shut, up!]" responded the girl without understanding him.

"[Hmpf, I refused to take a commoner as my familiar.]"

She crossed her arms and averted her gaze from Yuuto with a bratty, pouting face.

"[I cannot allow a second summoning as this would desecrate the sacred ritual bestowed upon us. Whether you like it or not, this young man was chosen to be your familiar. Otherwise I have to resort to expulsion from this academy,]" countered the stern man.

The young girl winced visibly but took a deep breath afterwards before she regained her posture.

"[I understand,]" she grumbled and lowered herself to Yuuto.

Suddenly Yuuto heard the crowd going off in joyous cheers with loud whistling amidst it.

Distracted by the noise he did not noticed the approaching girl before she grabbed the back of his head with her delicate left hand twisting his face to meet hers.

Yuuto was now staring at her up close and personal. He was right with his assessment to label her as a little girl as he could not make out any womanly curves. But as he looked in her vibrant, quartz pink eyes framed with a frustrated frown, he noticed the charms of her beautiful face.

Her small lips were crisp and hued in arousing pink. With her little snub nose, they helped her give off a childish but cute aura. Her voluminous hair looked fluffy as the fur of Moofah but pink in colour like a Poogie's hide. In Yuuto's eyes she looked like a delicate, tenderly crafted doll.

But his time of admiration was cut short as the thin outline of her wooden stick took the space between their glances.

"[Be grateful for this!]" she declared haughty in front his confused face.

"[Normally a noble lady would never do this to a peasant boy.]"

Then she touched his sweaty forehead with a poke of her little stick and began to chant unrecognisable words in her stranger's tongue.

"[My name is Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière.]"

"[By the Pentagon that rules the five powers, bless this individual and make him my familiar!]"

In a blink of an eye later, her moist, little lips touched to Yuuto's startling surprise his own dry lips.

* * *

Writer's comment:

This is the actual introduction to Yuuto as a character. What do you think about my Monster Hunter curses and phrases? I quite liked them, so they will appear more often.

Here I tried to play up the miscommunication aspect of the summoning ritual.

As always comments of any kind are appreciated.


	5. Chapter 4: A hunter's honey

Chapter 4: A hunter's honey

The kiss was short, shallow and very chaste. After breaking off their intimate but transient connection, the two were left for themselves.

Louise was averting her gaze from him by turning her head to her side trying to hide her obvious blushing, crimson red face of embarrassment.

Yuuto instead was dumbfounded and gave off a blank and baffled stare with his mouth agape letting a few drops of drool hanging.

But both of them could still feel the gentle, warm sensation of their bonding reverberate through their body in a hot, moist tingling spreading through from the tips of their lips to the far end of their finger and toes.

In the case of Yuuto the wildfire was disrupted by a painful, intense burning on his left hand.

"Ouch," he let out automatically in response.

Instinctively he grabbed it with his other hand and pulled the steel grey gauntlet off to reveal to his horror bright blue lights etched some unknown scripture into his skin.

Even though Yuuto would call this crazy sensation a burning pain, it was nothing more than an actual annoying tickling compared to the scorching heat of fireballs he ate to his face from various wyverns like for example a Rathalos' one during his back hop to the air combination.

"At least it doesn't hurt like a lava beam of a Gravios. Those burns last at least two weeks," he mused distastefully in silence as he remembered an unlucky encounter with a grey, volcanic mountain of a wyvern, which swiped him once with a stream of molten rocks from the side in his carelessness.

"Congratulations, Mademoiselle Vallière," came it friendly from the balding, bespectacled man.

"It seems your Familiar Contract was a success. Actually those are some really interesting runes on his hand, aside from all the excitement of your familiar being a human, of course."

"Thank you, Professor Colbert," took the disgruntled Louise with some little specks of gratitude.

Yuuto ignored the conversation and therefore did not notice his newfound proficiency in a stranger's tongue, as he was fixated on his back pack being ruffled by, what looked like a pastel blue miniature version of a Kushala Daora.

He immediately dashed off from the chatting pair of teacher and student in direction to his rightful belongings.

"By Ceadeus' beard, get away from my stuff!" he warned the beast sniffing around his back pack.

On the track he spotted his trusty, curved blade of the Hunter's Knife set, so he adjusted his sprint with small little drift to make room for an on the fly equipping.

He lowered his left side without slowing down and fished out the blade swimming on a verdant sea of grass.

After welcoming his friend back to his lonely, left hand Yuuto then picked up the pace and rushed straight towards this little Elder Dragon like if he was chased by an angry Diablos.

He was ready to jump forwards to deliver his solid and heavy helm splitter slash to the blue lizard's chubby spiked head, when a blurred monochrome image with a tinge of blue flashed before Yuuto's eyes.

He stopped the swing of his sizzling sword and came to halt inches in front of a small, blue haired glaring girl, who had her long wooden staff readied at an angle by two hands at the end of her stretched arms to confront Yuuto.

"Stop!" spoke Tabitha cold and calm.

"Already did, Four-Eyes," said Yuuto in return still letting the blade hang threatening in front of her.

"Otherwise, you and your presumably pet behind you would be dead."

He loosened his grip and twirled the short sword in his left hand around in a reverse grip like an oversized ice-pick. He then lowered his left arm and the blade with it to the back of his waist and secured it there with little clank.

"Now, if you could be nice. Please, tell your little Elder Dragon to get off my stuff, yeah?" demanded Yuuto with a gesture toward the source of rustling noises behind the bespectacled girl.

"Hurry up, before anything goes …"

Yuuto could not complete his sentence as he was surprised by a loud, high pitched, bell like ring to which he covered his ears with both his hands in response.

Similarly the blue winged lizard winced in face of the unpleasant pinging and launched itself into the air and fled the scene leaving the back pack to Yuuto's joy alone.

Familiars also endowed with the ability to fly or dig in the crowd of people still surrounding him emulated the dragon and disappeared in a cry. The rest played the same song of chaos like the time of Louise's explosion not long ago. So the Masters were busy calming them down for the next few minutes.

Louise also had finally arrived panting and furious at the destination with Professor Colbert. She drew a few short puffs of air to fill her void lungs before she exploded in anger.

"What in Brimir's name was that supposed to be?!"

"That was a Team Signal. The ping is pitched so high that only Hunters and Palicoes, whose ears are trained for it, can hear it in the wilderness," explained Yuuto flatly the matter of fact from his downed position as he kneeled himself down to inspect his belongings.

"It seems it also is in range of all those monsters."

"Those are not monsters, ignorant peasant, but familiars!" retaliated the affronted Louise downwards to the kneeling person ignoring the rest of his gibberish.

"And I did not mean that, but you storming off from me, your Master!"

"Look, what would you do, if some unknown 'familiar' was rummaging in your stuff?" asked Yuuto rhetorically before following up and ignoring the need for an incoming answer.

"Exactly, you would also blast off trying to slay that beast."

After he opened the various outside pockets on his sack for inspection, he moved on to the inner workings of his back pack revealing the multiple compartments inside.

"I hope nothing is broken. It's a total pain in the ass to clean up shattered potions, you know?" he commented while checking every small bottle containing some kind of green liquid.

Then he looked up towards Tabitha with a grim smile and addressed her, as he opened some deeper parts of the sack like bag.

"And for the sake of your little, blue pet. Pray that nothing happened to my honey. No one touches a Hunter's honey, all right!"

He then pulled out some little jars of glistening, doughy gold lining them up beside the green bottles.

"You can thank the Desire Sensor, Four-Eyes. Your little Elder Dragon won't be carved out with my knife today."

He continued his little examination by picking out some strange, tied up batches of weed and seed, blue mushrooms, and various other kind vegetables placing them in front of the rows of glasses, which had now an additional row of fluid mauve.

The he stuck his head inside the almost empty hole and let out some loud sniffing noises.

"Good, the gunpowder is just a little damp but still usable," concluded Yuuto his inventory survey and put everything back in its place inside the sack bag without even needing the guidance of his eyes as he repeated this labour plenty times in his career as an hunter.

Instead he looked up to the three strangers above him to ask some questions he was dying to know.

"Hey, you, 'Master'! Why can I suddenly talk and understand you all in your tongue?"

Louise winced a little bit in response to this direct rudeness but kept her composure. She had not the energy anymore after all what happened today for her usual blazing, verbal counterattacks. Her tired spirit slowed her down, so Professor Colbert replied instead.

"The Familiar Contract usually comes with a translation effect, young huntsman. With it the master can communicate with the familiar," tried the teacher to quell the young man's curiosity.

"So if I can speak in your tongue, does it mean my 'master' can talk in my tongue too? Interesting," mused the hunter on the ground.

"How about an experiment, you three? [If you can understand me, say 'omiwrog',]" asked Yuuto curiously in his own tongue. It was not easy for him to revert back. This 'Familiar Contract' did quite a numbers on his mental capabilities.

Tabitha, who was quiet the whole time and resorted to reading in her thick book, remained as uninterested to everything outside her reading. Professor Colbert looked as confused as you can look if someone speaks in different tongues to you.

The tired Louise did not register the whole experiment ordeal and just asked:

"What does 'omiwrog' even mean?"

"Nothing serious just an expression," said the hunter nonchalantly as he raised himself up to eye level after he finished up tidying his back pack. He then swung the heavy sack bag over his right shoulder and slung his other arm through a brown cord loop securing the whole thing on his broad back.

Even though Louise saw him eye to eye in her little moment with him earlier, it was now the first time she could observe him standing tall at her leisure.

His fancy armour was able to masked most of his physique indicating the print of excellent craftsmanship, but even that could not hide all of his thick, dense muscles rippling beneath the protection as he stood at least a head over her even surpassing the professor, who was by no means a small person.

His face looked nothing seen in Halkeginia. His eyes were unusual narrow giving him a more elegant but vicious look than the raw, open eyes of her fellow people. The nose was small like hers and the cheekbones were more visibly than on any other person she knew. His chiselled chin was shaved off clean of any hair exposing his untarnished pale skin with a tan tinge, which made him younger than he looked.

Overall he looked fascinatingly exotic in Louise's eyes. He had a rough but regal aura around him that oozed virility.

His other features were nothing new to her, but the combination of deep, aquamarine blue eyes and his silky, night black hair framing this stranger's face in a simple, short style made his appearance even more mysterious.

"Now, where is my shield, my hat and my left gauntlet?" shook his young but matured, deep voice the pink little lady out of her dreamy gaze at him.

"The armour of the Great Maccao isn't bad looking without headpiece, but no serious Hunter runs around in an incomplete set."

"Except if you're doing a Naked Challenge," remembered Yuuto.

He respected these exceptions because only a truly exceptional Master Hunter with the largest Elder Dragon Gems around could show themselves off in such public manner, hence the name, even though they were technically not really naked.

He let his eyes wander through the scenery before he spotted the missing pieces back at where he had rested a while ago. Yuuto made way straight away and Louise followed curiously leaving Tabitha alone as Professor Colbert moved to the crowd announcing the end of the ceremony and requested the students to head back to their dormitory.

* * *

Writer's comment:

This is a bit more experimental chapter. These are my first tries of an intimate moment, an action scene with one-liners and a comedy infused exposition dialogue.

Enjoy and comment like always.


	6. Chapter 5: Of Magic and Monsters

Chapter 5: Of Magic and Monsters

"So how exactly does this Familiar Contract work? And what the heck is a 'Familiar' anyway?" asked Yuuto his new pink-haired walking companion.

He arrived back at his initial resting place and picked up his steel grey gauntlet and verdant feathered hat. In a blink of an eye he slipped the metal glove over his left hand and fastened it with some tied up leather straps. He then dusted his hat off with some gentle but forceful taps before placing it on his jet black head.

"And how do I look? Good right."

If Louise were not this stressed out she would actually compliment the commoner for his considerable worthy taste in clothing instead she resorted to some simple nods.

He then made his way toward his shield a bit further from them. On the way Louise mustered some strength to speak up to him to answer his questions and getting it behind her for today.

"You are now the servant of me, Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière, a noble of Tristain. The contract binds you to me, your master, through magic. Your duty is …"

She was interrupted in her explanation by his loud laughter that cramped his whole body stopping them at their tracks.

"Hold on! Did you just say 'magic'?" burst it out of him between the chuckles of amusement.

"Please tell me that's a joke. Everyone knows magic isn't real!"

As he recovered from his outburst, he looked at her peeved face and saw the sincerity of her words in her rose coloured eyes.

"You're dead serious, huh? Well that explains, all the weird things today," he said flatly in response to this astonishing revelation. He fell silent and just moved on to his shield, which he picked up a few steps later. He buckled up the metal disk on his right forearm with the inbuilt leather straps just like his gauntlet earlier.

"I apologize for my rudeness just now. It was not right for me to laugh at someone without being aware of the circumstances," begged Yuuto cordially for his little companion's forgiveness and hung his naked head in a bow with his hat pressed to his shoulder guard by his right hand.

"Raise your head. I applaud you for your own voluntary act to make up for your rudeness. So I will forgive you, for now," responded Louise to the impressively mannered act of humbleness from a commoner.

Yuuto straightened his spine back to its natural posture and placed his hat back on his head. With the returning eye contact he saw the stern but lenient face of this little girl. She then shifted back to her neutral and objective tone of clarification.

"Then back to the explanation. As I told you, I am your master now. Your duty is to aid me in all your capacity."

"Sorry to interrupt you again, but could we postpone this lesson a little bit? Now that this sea of people have ebbed away, I'm able to spot the Yian Kut-Ku that I hunted down," tried the man cladded in green armour calmly express his situation and indeed the courtyard was now only occupied by a few people laying around in the sun chattering together or in Tabitha's case sitting on a bench buried in her book with her mini Elder Dragon dozing off at her feet.

"Yian Kut-Ku?" asked Louise with an arched eyebrow indicating both her annoyance of another disregard of respect and actual curiosity.

"Yeah, right over there," pointed her familiar out with a stretched out arm toward the corpse of the winged, orange lizard before he ran off again from her in its direction.

After a few seconds of fast walking they arrived at the lifeless body of the 'Yian Kut-Ku'.

"Now you can continue your lecture. If you don't mind, can I take out my carves while you're at it?" asked Yuuto the little girl beside him marvelling at the actual size of the corpse.

"Eh, ye-yes. I allow you your so-called 'carves'," permitted the startled Louise.

She was curious what his familiar was going to do now after his quite amazing display of martial athleticism during his first run off. She saw him approaching the large fan out wings. He touched it and examined the blue membrane.

Then he extended his left hand to the back of his waist and took hold of a blade covered up by his broad short sword. He used the back of his hand to push down the handle of his larger blade making room for grasping the smaller one, which he unsheathed with metallic whiz.

The blade looked like sheen, grey leaf out of steel. It was much longer than it was wide with the widest portion near the tip. The blade itself was running along all edges but one side was slightly tilted to give the whole knife a miniscule curve. The handle lacked a guard and was just painted black.

He gripped it tightly and approached the tip of the wing cutting into the blue membrane and splatting some small drops of red blood over it. Yuuto carefully moved his carving knife along the frame of the main bone in the wing to completely detach the membrane from the wing. After he finished the motion in a few minutes he folded the blue, leathery membrane while the wing bled out. He repeated the procedure on the other side of the corpse before he made his way to the head of the Yian Kut-Ku. There he clipped the corpse off its large yellow fan-like ears.

He then returned satisfied with his rewards stacked on each other in his arms to Louise, who had seated herself beneath the shadow of the big, old oak tree. He sat down next to her and placed his rewards beside him.

"I was all ears for your little lecture during the carving, but now I'm that and more," he said to her in a jolly tone, while waving one of the large, yellow ears around sending off some droplets of dark red blood around.

"Oops, my bad. I hope Kut-Ku blood doesn't stain."

"Do not worry about it. The servants of this academy are more than capable to clean some stains from a blouse," assured Louise him nonchalantly.

"Do I have your full attention now?" she asked. This time to make sure she did not need to repeat the procedure again. Yuuto simply nodded emphatically instead of answering.

"Good. How about we start with a self-introduction of each other to serve as polite initiation?"

She then stood up in front of him placing her hand on her flat chest and began to loudly announce herself to him.

"My name is Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière, the third daughter of Duke Centurion de La Vallière and Duchess Karin Désirée de La Vallière! I am noble and as such I want you pay me the rightful respect that comes with it. But more importantly I am your Master and you are my Familiar, a servant bound by magic. Your duty is to aid me with everything you have, whether that is on the battlefield or in the domicile of my living."

She finished her grand introduction with her pulling out her wand from her cape and dramatically pointed it toward the unshaken, sitting Yuuto beneath her on the ground. He opted to clasp casually his with hands to praise her speech and then leisurely gestured her to sit back next to him with a few taps on the soft grass. Louise had imagined him also standing up, but she considered her tired constitution and agreed to his offer to rest beneath the oak tree with him.

"Hi, nice to meet you, uhm, Louise. I'm Yuuto from Yukumo village. The son of Blacksmith Gennai and Hirako. I'm just a hunter for hire, currently at rank seven," he introduced himself plainly but in a polite and friendly manner as Louise took the space, where she previously resided.

"Now let's stop with the pleasantries because I'm not very good at it, you know. Could you, please, explain to me what in Narkakos's pit I'm doing here? You know, I was just ready to deliver the killing blow to this," he pointed to the dead body he had mutilated just a few moments ago, "Yian Kut-Ku with my favourite finishing move with the SnS," he simulated a downward chop with his left hand, "but suddenly this blinding light appeared. The next I remember was laying here and feeling like I got hit by a tailspin of a Duramboros."

"As I told you I summoned you with magic … Wait a minute! Did you just say you killed this 'Yian Ku-Ku'? You liar! What kind of hunter slays dragons?!" sputtered Louise in staunch disbelief crossing her arms in resistance to this fabricated story. This response only lasted a moment as she realised the irony, when Yuuto raised his eyebrow in a questioning expression.

"All right, I realise the mistake of my behaviour. I am sorry."

Grinning victoriously like an idiot Yuuto leaned back resting his spine on the rough but pleasant, grooved bark of the oak trunk and crossing his arms behind his head as a makeshift cushion.

"I will answer your questions sincerely, Louise," he smirked.

"Yes, I as a matter of fact killed that 'dragon', but we call it a wyvern. In the case of the Yian Kut-Ku a bird wyvern to be precise."

Louise looked back to the corpse and noticed the resemblance. The Yian Kut-Ku had indeed the traits of a bird. Now she saw an oversized, scaly chicken instead of a fearsome dragon. She shuddered by the thought what might have happened if Kirche took notice of it by the time she may had made it her familiar.

"And more importantly I'm no ordinary hunter. I'm a proud Monster Hunter, Louise."

Louise's eyes widened at the revelation of what kind of person sat next to her as she stared stunned into his bright smile, which he exposed to her as he boastfully crossed his arms.

She blushed in response to his overwhelming presence and just stammered sheepishly some words of praise to cover up her self-consciousness.

"I-I a-am impre-pressed, Yuuto. For a commoner to overcome such a beast is truly an extraordinary feat worthy of praise from a noble like me."

"Thank you. I am honoured. It was no small deed for me," admitted Yuuto half-truly as he actually lied about the latter part.

It felt great for Yuuto to be once praised and admired for a small hunt as the Yian Kut-Ku. Contrary to the belief of non-hunter folks the preparation work for hunts of smaller monsters consumed just as much time as any of the bigger ones. More importantly however was the fact for any professional hunter that any quest regardless of the objective could be the one that will screw them over like a Monoblos from underground.

"Hey, Louise. How about changing location? I think the sun is going to lay down for its sleep," announced Yuuto to the still stunned Louise, who suggested in stutters to go back to her room, as she also felt the cooling air on her skin. She thought it was better to resume their talk inside in private.

So the two got up and made their way across the courtyard. Louise led the charge as she knew the grounds and Yuuto trailed behind her faithfully like a dog with his monster skin under his arms and his back pack hanging from his shoulders.

On the way they encountered Professor Colbert with two female companions, a bespectacled, young woman in a tight garb and an older lady in large robes. They were discussing how to get rid of a certain draconic corpse.

* * *

Writer's comment:

I hope I was able to capture Louise's tsundere aspect in a mild manner out of noble pride and sensitive self-confidence. I was not a particular fan of the original abusive nature in the anime.

This is the last chapter I have written before releasing it with the others. It took me a weekend to finish them. So I am afraid to tell that you have to wait for a week for a new entry.

Please enjoy and leave a comment in the reviews.


	7. Chapter 6: Employment talks

Chapter 6: Employment talks

After Yuuto had entered the hallowed grounds of a lady's room that belonged to his so-called 'Master', he unloaded all his equipment in a little corner beside a massive wardrobe out of dark walnut wood left from the entrance.

First he placed his sack bag on the brighter hazel wood floor as a foundation. As security he leaned it against the wall of the quite spacious room. The wall was painted in plain white, but now it reflected the orange light of the slowly setting sun. The last third of the wall was covered by some kind of repeating, wooden carvings of a large, long rhombus and roses at the four sides.

On such a panel he leaned his sack and placed the Yian Kut-Ku materials on the back pack.

Then he reached with his left hand for his shield on the right untying the straps on his forearm. The removed shield was then crowned on top of his little equipment snowman. Next he was reaching for his blade, but he relinquished the thought. The sharp edges would only damage the wooden interior and his weapon was still the safest at his side.

Yuuto looked around the room and spotted a chair opposite the wardrobe in front of an empty desk. He grabbed the chair and placed himself on it in the middle of the room with his back pointing to the door a few steps away and his faced toward Louise, who had rested her tired body on a giant canopy bed, which dwarfed her small figure, and watched him focused.

"So back to my duty as your familiar," shot it out of Yuuto immediately once he seated himself comfortably on the large and nice, wooden chair with thick leather padding.

"What does it entail exactly?"

Without further ado Louise informed him about the world he was brought in by her. She told him that he was now in the kingdom of Tristain, a country on the continent Halkeginia. She explained him to his astonishment and chagrin that the people, who wielded the power of magic bestowed upon them by their ancient precursor Brimir, ruled these lands as the so-called nobles with the royal families as their leaders.

"I don't understand this Bullfangoshit of nobles and commoners. Aren't we all children of nature? Some say the heaven is our father and earth our mother or the other way around. Again other people proclaim the celestial bodies as our parents, but all of this chatter is just some minor nit-picking. In the end nature takes back what it gave and it will not care about your honour and divine blessing for it is a strict parent," responded Yuuto to Louise in a condescending tone.

"Your beliefs sound dangerously similar to elven paganism, which also worships the spirits of nature," remarked Louise surprised narrowing her eyes to inspect. She was certain that he did not possess any long, pointy ears, but the incredible magic powers of elves may allowed them to fool even mages.

"You should not mention this in front of anyone but me, understood? This is for your own wellbeing."

"Elven paganism? I've never heard of it," he shrugged off relaxed, but hardened in response to her suspicion seeking glance.

"Don't worry, I'm not a very spiritual person, so I probably never do this, but I got it. No spiritual talk anymore."

"Then I can finally go on with my explanation of your duties as my familiar," rejoiced the pink-haired girl with loud sigh as she let herself fall back on her large, comfortably decorated bed. She laid there for a while before she jumped back to continue her explanation talk with Yuuto.

First she provided to him some background information about her occupation as a student of the Tristain Academy of Magic, which led her to the familiar summoning ritual.

Yuuto's purpose as a familiar was in generally to keep her safe and helped her whenever he can, which included serving her in the house. In return he was going to be offered shelter with a decent bed, access to nourishment through the academy and supply of equipment, if Louise saw it appropriate to spend her fortune for him. Additionally he was going to have some time for his own leisure during classes of her.

"If I got it right, my assignments are to protect you like a guard dog, helped you with your chores like a butler and generally have everything in my life be adjusted to yours, right?" asked Yuuto calmly his Master on the bed smiling at him like a sun.

"Yes, your memory serves you right and this is your schedule," threw it Louise in his face with some papers she just had pulled out from the other end of her bed.

Yuuto, who almost had fallen off his chair, gathered the papers and saw some numbers and words, which he interpreted as dates and appointments for her class in this year.

"This magic is quite marvellous to let me learn even the script of this tongue so easily," he thought distracted before he returned to facing off with Louise. He took a deep and echoing breath to muster up some inner serenity.

"Louise," he addressed her calm.

"Yes, what is it, my familiar?" she responded curiously.

"First, could I request from you to be called by name?"

"I do not see any harm in this minor plea, even though I have to retain authority. But given that you already address me by my name, I will have no issue to return the favour. Is that all?" sputtered it out of her little mouth.

"If you ask me that directly," he replied.

"No."

"Really?" frowned Louise to the rather short and unexpected answer of him.

"I thought you did not like us nobles ruling commoners?"

He stepped up from the chair and turned his back to her. He walked to the desk and placed the sheets of paper on it before he returned to his seat to answer her puzzled expression.

"Don't get me wrong, Louise," he agreed to her assessment of him with a grim smile.

"At first I thought, I'm going to be some kind of pet. I've no desire of serving a noble just because someone thinks they're right, you know," he explained his train of thought to her.

"But what you provide me with is employment no different from the one I've engaged in."

A statement that surprised Louise considerably because of the facts she learned of her familiar's personality. He then told her of so-called Felynes, intelligent cats walking on two legs, who worked in his society many professions for example as great cooks, chamber custodians or as 'Palicoes', felyne Monster Hunters, in the wilderness .

"These little cats," he lined up his left hand around his waist parallel to the wooden floor trying to communicate the size from his memories, "do the same kinds of work. Of course given the Guild pays them accordingly."

He saw the questioning face of hers at the words mentioning money. He quickly waved his right hand at a side profile to diffuse her worries.

"Don't worry, I will not charge you any money," assured Yuuto her with a wink of his right eye and goofy grin.

"Only in consideration you were telling the truth about my free time. I can use those to for some side jobs," he admitted his intention accompanied by the audible snap of his fingers.

"You really are quite easy-going, Yu-Yuuto," praised Louise him for his fortitude considering that his pride as a monster slaying warrior was bound to a little girl like her. She regretted the thought immediately, because she was now reminded of her own pathetic attempts at magic

She began to sulk in melancholic misery visible to her concerned guest, who lost his outgoing gleam in response.

"Oh, please. I didn't mean to side-line you. As a hunter for hire, I'm fully committed to all my employers," he tried to cheer her up by standing up and tapping his right fist against the shoulder guard on the left. Noticing the rustling of his armour, she looked up and saw him now cower in front of her. He placed his right hand on her left shoulder and patted her a few times with a warm smiled.

"Don't worry. There's one thing a hunter must learn from the very beginning," he told her in a soothing but coarse timbre.

"Deal with homesickness. There's no use crying over spilt milk."

"Th-thanks, Yuuto," sniffed Louise while she wiped off the drops of tears from her face.

She was quite touched by the compassionate gesture of the huntsman even though he did not know the true reasons for her troubled state.

Yuuto got himself up and watch over her. He now noticed that the sun was almost gone so he suggested to Louise to lay her worries to rest and take good sleep.

"A hunter may not miss his home, but the absence of a bed is always regrettable in the wild," pondered Yuuto quietly.

"That is good idea, Yuuto," agreed Louise to his proposition and jumped off her bed to undress herself. She untied her dark cape letting it fall down to her feet. Next she loosened the brass tie under her throat, which she placed beside some woolly hair ties on the desk of a large mirror dresser left from the writing table with the schedule papers. She was about to exposed her lower half by removing her black skirt, when Yuuto interrupted her flustered.

"Woah, whoa, Louise! I'm still here, you know!" he warned her waving his hands hysterically, which obstructed the view to his obvious blushing face.

"Oho, is the great hunter ashamed of a little bit of skin from the fair sex?" teased Louise him in amusement by moving her delicate fingers to her collar and loosen her restraint on her chest a little bit to entice him jokingly.

"That's not the problem," he tried to defence himself now covering his eyes with his hands instead of waving them in vain.

"I think a child shouldn't expose herself in front of a grown man in such lewd way!"

"That's rude, I am no child, Yuuto!" burst it out of Louise in a high pitched shriek.

"I am already sixteen year old and therefore mature enough to marry, you ignorant dog!"

"What!" spit Yuuto out and letting down his defence. He saw that the little lady was still decently covered but burning red with anger. She stood there with her clenched hands slammed against the slender waist of hers.

"You're already sixteen? Man, I wished I look as young as you at that age," commented the hunter enviously to Louise's wonder. She cocked her head a bit to the side and formed a puzzled expression on her face giving off the innocent aura of a curious child.

"You see, Louise. When I began my career as a hunter at sixteen, I already had to shave my face every now and then," he satisfied her inquiring look with a smirking and nodding face of nostalgia of foregone days.

"You don't know what a hassle that was in damp or sticky places like a swamp or a jungle. You don't want to experience the disgusting smells collecting in your beard," he concluded his tale with a visible shivers sending ripples down his spine.

"Since then my chin has been always free of any hair."

The room was silent for a moment before Louise exploded again, but this time not in anger but rather in radiant laughter. The outburst shook her whole small frame as she clutched her flat stomach with both hands. After a few more chuckles she calmed down and seated herself on a stool in front of her mirror dresser.

"Never have I heard such a ridiculous use for a younger, more youthful appearance in my life," she let it out heavily panting.

"Well, it seems someone is enjoying the mishaps of my life," pressed it Yuuto flatly through his closed teeth in an echoing grumble.

"Please forgive me," giggled Louise still amused, but a burning question sparked itself inside her mind. She got hold of herself in an instant, which made Yuuto looked at her concerned as if he expected another crying session.

"Do not fret, I am just curious. How old are you actually?" she asked the in armour cladded huntsman with sincere vision.

The hunter was a bit puzzled by this simple question, but reclaimed his composure. He harrumphed loudly to clear his throat for answering Louise as crisp as possible.

"My humble self just survived to his twentieth year four months ago."

* * *

Writer's comment:

So I tried to write a bit during the week to get a head start for the weekend. It seems it paid off.

Again I did not let it escalate between the two characters. I hope Yuuto's reasoning regarding Louise's appearance does not seem too forced.

Please enjoy and review the chapter.


	8. Chapter 7: Candlelight hair brushing

Chapter 7: Candlelight hair brushing

"A meagre four years of difference," was Louise silent response to the disclosure of her new employee's age, who stood there in the middle of her room averting his eyes from her. It shocked her quite frankly that her familiar already experienced adventures of grandeur with so few years on his broad shoulders. She had gauged him to be at least in his third decade.

"You look older, much older than I suspected, Yuuto," noted the young mage blankly.

"Well, I guess taking fireballs and poisonous acid to your face isn't probably good for someone's skin," gave Yuuto out without making eye contact as a possible but unlikely reason for his matured appearance, while he tried to fixate his gaze on some of the furniture in the room.

Now she realised why he was still so flustered about her lightly cladded appearance. Her skirt and blouse were still half open revealing a bit of her snow white skin in inappropriate places for stranger's initial meetings. Her skin went scarlet red in an instant with shame and hidden delight of the opposite sex's recognition of her femininity.

"He sees a woman of his age range in me," she concluded her train of thought and giggled a bit at her first reaction with a boy, who had been charmed by her.

The weariness of her nickname was just a recent addition to her library of explosion triggers. The other sore point in her rather brittle confidence was her lack of womanly curves compared to the girls of her age. Being denied the birth right of a noble and a lady put quite a few dents to Louise's self-image. So the uneasiness of Yuuto eased the scars of her soul quite a bit even though she was unaware of it or her budding feelings for him for now.

"I understand your concern now," was her first words in regards to her inadequate appearance, which she fixed immediately with swift, slender fingers. Although she personally would not mind showing off to Yuuto, but reminded herself of her position of a noble as an excuse.

"I will not cause you any further inconveniences by asking you to dress me up for the night," she announced to him, who sighed in obvious relief.

"But," Yuuto gulped visibly, "I need your help in preparing my hair for my rest."

She ran her delicate fingers through a section of her smooth and fluffy, pink hair, but was halted in its course by bunches of miniscule knots of chaotic strains of hair.

"You will wait outside, while I change into my nightgown. Then I will call you back for my hair," she suggested with a smile and her right index finger extended out to the ceiling.

Yuuto silently agreed with a simple nod and made his way out of the door. There he stood for a few moments. Someone could have mistaken him for a guard, if he was not leaning his back comfortably on the wooden door. His heart was racing and he tried to regain his usual, professional composure as a hunter for hire, but this was his actual first contact with a girl of his age range to such a close degree.

Non-hunter folks may be surprised and disappointed to hear that physical interactions of romantic nature were quite rare among hunters. The romanticised image of monster slaying adventures and passionate words of love were far from reality. For most hunters the contact among themselves was a simple business decision of commercial nature, a quite dangerous nature to be precise.

The initial years of learning the profession required too much attention to even consider the thought for carnal distraction aside the lust for monster blood.

Seasoned hunters also had no desire for a fling as they were too focused on advancing through the ranks of the Hunter's Guild to satisfy their ambition and more importantly experience the thrill of the hunt.

Only veteran hunters, who consider retiring, were actually actively seeking a permanent partner to settle down with a family, but by then hunters usually were in their late thirties or early forties.

So Yuuto's handling of female presence was actually not an overreaction for someone, who led such a chaste lifestyle. Even his experiences with women among his ilk were limited as his hunting buddies were mostly consisting of male friends. The only regular contact with the fair sex was through his interactions with the Receptionists of the Guild, commonly known as Guild Girls. But these were simple necessities of his job.

By the time his heart calmed down, the knocking sounds from the door on his back reverberating took him out of his concentration as he heard the muffled, soft voice of the girl beyond the boundary call out to him.

"You have my permission to enter now, Yuuto."

He opened the heavy, wooden door easily with a push of his right hand and step into Louise's room, which was now lit up in a warm, soothing light of amber by numerous small flames dancing on melting podiums of beeswax. The air was filled with a pleasant, sweet aroma of distant, vibrant forests and hills.

Louise had changed into a frilly, pastel pink, ankle long sleeping gown out of a comfortable combination of internal cotton padding and external velvet for a smooth and cosy feeling on the skin. She walked up to Yuuto on her small, bare feet and handed him over a large, oval shaped hairbrush with bundles of sturdy bristles. Then she made her way toward the stool in front of the mirror dresser and seated herself on it with gleaming expectations reflected on the surface of the mirror glass.

Yuuto removed his left gauntlet and fixed it at his waist. Then he gripped the hairbrush lightly but secure in his right hand and strode across the room and positioned himself behind the little Pinkhead. Then he took a breath and started to brush Louise's hair, which startled her bit because of the silent surprise.

He first lifted a portion of the pink, fluffy hair up with his naked, left hand and ran the bristles of the brush down the lanes from the top of her head to the fringes. When he met resistance from irregularities such as knots, he gently rustled the bundle of hair from underneath with his supporting left hand to loosen the tight spots for easier and especially pleasant untangling with the brush on its second course. Yuuto continued to work his way through Louise's hair with this method from the left to the right.

At the end of his brush work, he took two of the hair ties and bound her now straight and smooth hair. He looped her whole hair through one tie, which he twisted into a figure of eight to make a second ring to loop through creating a ponytail at the base of her back head. He repeated this motion a second time with the other hair tie to buckle up the loose fringes.

"You are full of surprises, Yuuto," praised Louise the hunter as she appraised his hair work in the large mirror from different angles by posing her head.

"This is a commendable effort for your first try."

A sentiment she truly believed in because she felt his hands handle her hair with utmost care. She was quiet the whole time, but she was glancing through the mirror at him and saw his meticulous expression. Even more important she felt his touch and the gentleness that still echoed through her body.

"To be honest, it wasn't my first time dealing with hair, but that was the fur of a Moofah, which isn't exactly a good comparison with a person," admitted Yuuto, who had moved to Louise's right to place the hairbrush on the desk of the mirror dresser. Next he picked up his gauntlet from his waist and slipped it on his hand covering the unknown markings.

"Since when is animal husbandry part of a hunter's work?" she asked curiously. She refrained from inquiring information of a Moofah because she inferred from the mentioning of fur that it probably was some kind of sheep.

"Ah, yes. A common misconception among the uninitiated people," he replied with pleasure because Yuuto genuinely liked to inform the inquisitive minds.

"A hunter's job is to simply collect things. Killing is only a method to obtain the desired parts. That's why the lower ranked quests of the Guild are mostly gathering requests. In my early days I was literally knee-deep in dirt and mud collecting, uhm, well, shit."

He paused a bit remembering the time he searched in piles of dung for Kut-Ku scales to earn some extra money. Then he cleared his throat probably to excuse his expressive choice of word.

"What I'm trying to say is that the most important lesson you learn at the beginning of your career is that patience is virtue. If you can't bear with menial labour, then, please, consider a job change."

"I see, even a great hunter like you had once started small," responded Louise attentively to the lesson from Yuuto's hunting life.

"Correct," he approved with a little reddening of his ears in embarrassment to her still admiring recognition of him as a great hunter, which he frankly would say was an overestimation compared to some real masters of his craft.

"But enough of my hunting tales," erupted Yuuto.

"It's late now. Louise, you have to go to sleep. I'll wake you tomorrow as agreed in our employment talks today."

"You are right. I need to be rested for tomorrow's lectures," consented Louise a bit saddened.

She lifted herself up from the stool and moved to her large canopy bed, in which she let herself fall in. Then she crawled a bit on the bed to reach her usual sleeping position. There she lied down and covered herself up with the large, clean white blanket by pulling it over her whole body. Yuuto wandered across the room extinguishing every single light by blowing out the candle flames in the meantime. Before he finished his task, he looked back to Louise in her bed and asked her for permission to go for a stroll around the academy.

"There should be no problems. As long you do not trouble anyone," yawned Louise tired at doorsteps of slumber.

"Very well, I'll do so," agreed Yuuto, while blowing out the last flame and let the moonshine flood the room in pristine but cold light.

He went back to his little equipment snowman in the corner from his first time entering this room and picked up his stuff.

"Yuuto, ask the maids for a room for the night. Tell them that you are acting as my familiar for the House of de la Vallière. This will subdue their resistance," she advised him in the dark.

"Thanks, Louise," he answered back to the dark.

"Then I'll head to my quarters. I'll see you tomorrow and sleep well."

"Good night to you as well, Yuuto."

He could see a smile forming in the dark and a small hand waving at him. With a little smirk he opened the door and stepped outside leaving Louise to the soothing embrace of the night.

* * *

Writer's comment:

This my first try on a romantic scene. I hope it is not cheesy. I also tried to dive into the experience of both with the opposite sex to explain their possible attraction.

When I wrote this I realised that I should probably change the genre tags to friendship, romance or hurt and comfort. I do intend to bring in the action in the future. So what do you readers think?

Enjoy and review if you like to.


	9. Chapter 8: Strange stranding

Chapter 8: Strange stranding

Yuuto made his way through the barely lit corridor of the same dark, wooden doors with only small, halkeginian scriptures differentiating the rooms and their respective residents from another. He had no trouble finding his way in the darkness for he was trained for and accustomed to environments devoid of light to hunt down even nocturnal creatures at his full capacity. Also the room downstairs were brightly lit up, so he had a guiding light. He went carefully down the spiralling staircase due to his hands being occupied with the carved out remains of his last prey.

The corridor he arrived at was considerably wider than the one above the stairs. The white walls and stone-flagged floor was hued in amber light because of the two rows of oil lamps mounted on each wall. The end of the corridor led to even more spacious circular hall with a small scale waterspout fountain at its centre.

Along the way to the hall Yuuto encountered a pair of students in the corridor. It was a flamboyant, blonde boy with a rose in his hand sweet-taking a plain, long haired brunette girl in a matching brown cape.

"Different colour, different year was it, right?" remembered Yuuto from his conversation with his new employer sleeping above him.

"I am good at making a soufflé," explained the young smitten girl.

"Then I'd love to savour a bite from your cooking," responded the rose lad.

"Really?" "Of course, Katie. I would never spout off a lie in front of you!" "Oh, Lord Guiche~"

Yuuto quickly ignored those two and tried to quickly pass by the two lovebirds without attracting attention, but was stopped in his tracks by the blonde rose lad.

"Well, isn't that the peasant boy Louise the Zero summoned today?"

"Louise the Zero?" noted Yuuto silently in curiosity, but kept quiet about it.

"Oh, you mean the human familiar! It was quite a fuel for some heated discussions even among the first years," remarked Katie trying to impress the blond sweet-talker.

"Hey, peasant boy! Are you truly the Familiar of the Zero? Or are you just some guy hired by the Valliéres to cover for her daughter as the rumours tell?" directed the blonde lad his question to Yuuto, who had grown tired of him.

Yuuto just clamped the monster parts under his right armpit and removed his left gauntlet for the third time today to reveal the branded scripture on the back of his left hand to the couple in front of him.

"I see, than you truly are a human familiar," declared the convinced blonde noble in an annoyingly flamboyant fashion of waving with his rose.

"If this is all, please excuse me. I have business to attend to," spoke Yuuto his first and last words in this conversation and marched away from them to his original destination. The couple resumed their sweet-talking as if he never passed through.

Entering the large, circular hall Yuuto finally got a hang of its size. It was by no means going to surpass the grandness of Dundorma's Guild Hall, but it was certainly almost as big as the stage hall of the Songstress. The spacious room was illuminated by a ring of candle fire encircling the fountain spouting arcs of water reflecting the light. Around the fountain were seating opportunities in form of benches with violet padding positioned in a concentric circle.

Once again he met a couple of students sitting on the edges of the fountain. This time they looked a bit older, probably more along his age than Louise's, but the female one wore the same black cape like her, so he was not sure. She certainly outclassed Louise in terms of womanly curves and had an even fiercer appearance with her flame like long, red hair covering her right eye.

The male, presumably older student had short, brown hair, but it was accompanied by impressive sideburns. The same could be said about his bushy eyebrows. Both of them had darker skin colour similar to the Sea People but without the translucency. And both also were in the middle of some rather suggestive skinship.

"Where am I? In Kokoto during Hero's Lover day?" groaned Yuuto annoyed in his mind. He ignored the pair and searched for the exit out of this misery into the courtyard. But again he was halted in his tracks.

"Oh my, what have we here? The human familiar of Louise," interrupted the Redhead her own naughty playtime with her partner for a little verbal amusement.

Yuuto simply brushed the comment aside and walked away in a random direction. It did not matter to him where as long he avoided interaction with her. Even a celibate man like Yuuto knew that women like her meant trouble and his orders were staying out of trouble, so his course of action was predictable. But again, he was not so lucky because the male companion of hers had lifted himself up and hurriedly got hold of him.

"Hey, Kirche von Zerbst, a noble lady is addressing you, commoner, and you are ignoring her?" barked her lover intimidating with the obvious intention of impressing the red lady.

Yuuto merely pushed his hand, which was gripping his right shoulder from behind, to the side and turned around to face the couple.

"I'm on an assignment from my employer, so forgive me. I don't have the time for chatter, maybe next time," he answered the pair truthfully and was preparing to leave them, but Kirche was not ready to let go.

"So it's true that the little runt hired some commoner as her familiar," attempted the Redhead to provoke a response for her enjoyment.

"I'm sorry. I've probably worded that badly. I am Louise's familiar," corrected Yuuto himself by displaying the glowing marks of his left hand in front of them. He was feeling a sense of déjà vu.

"I just have another agreement with her expressed in a formal employment. And, please, refrain from slandering Louise in my presence. I'm her familiar, after all."

He glared viciously at those two causing them to step back a bit. Even if his and Louise's relationship currently was of commercial nature and an emergency situation for both. Yuuto did not want to hear someone badmouth his business partner behind the back because that would be an indirect insult to his business practices.

"My bad, my bad … just some bad habits from me," excused Kirche herself by blowing an empty kiss additionally to a shallow wink of her left uncovered eye.

"Tabitha was right this guy is dangerous," she remembered at the moment.

"Then if this is all, please excuse me. I'm in a hurry," said Yuuto and took his leave walking out on those two. After a few steps he got outside in the courtyard. He was still feeling this irritating sense of déjà vu.

-X-

"What do you mean don't bully the Zero anymore?" asked Kirche the petite Bluehead after she entered her room in the early evening hours. She was in the middle of her schedule check for tonight's entertainment.

"Her familiar," responded Tabitha deathly serious. "He's dangerous."

"Oh come on, did you get scared because of his little act today," swept the fiery Redhead aside.

She was preparing for a nice and relaxing bath before she was going to change in some more revealing clothing in anticipation of her various nightly meetings.

"Sure, he was fast as lightning and swift as the wind. Impressive, but he's still just a commoner."

The scene of a warrior suited in bright green feather armour blazing across the courtyard in blinding speed and stopping in his tracks just as quick flashed before her inner eye.

Kirche shrugged it off nonchalantly and focused instead on her preparations for the night. She flicked her wand and some cotton white and fluffy towels were floating towards her. They landed over her arms.

"It's not like he can do things like this," she snapped with her wand and a small puff of flames erupted in thin air and disappeared, when she waved her wand again.

"Sylphid is afraid," countered the unimpressed Bluehead coldly with an icy stare.

"Oh really? Why would a wind drake like yours be afraid of a plebeian warrior?" asked Kirche visibly surprised to this statement.

Dragons were powerful physical and magical creature. Theses serpents with four legs and a pair of wings around the size of a small merchant caravan were capable of crushing a whole battalion of three hundred peasant soldiers, let alone the magical horrors they could unleash.

"Is it because Sylphid is still a child?"

Kirche doubted this, though. Even a dragon infant like Tabitha's familiar would cause a square mage trouble. A commoner would never stand a chance.

Tabitha shook her head and said: "No." "As expected," thought the Redhead.

"He reeks of blood," informed the petite girl her friend ominously.

"Blood? That's not going to convince me. He looks like a sellsword, a sharp one I admit, but they're hundreds like him in Germania. A bit of blood on one's clothing isn't some rarity there," dismissed the red lady dissatisfied and made her way straight to her private bathroom. Tabitha followed her determined in silence.

The room was small. It was just large enough for three people, but immaculate white due to the marble tiles decking out the space. The focal point was the pristine bathtub in the centre filled with steaming hot water. The water had an unnatural pastel pink tinge with rose petals floating on its surface.

"Not human blood," corrected Tabitha her previous statement. "Dragon blood."

Kirche placed the towels on a laundry basket out of braided straw and was undressing herself to free her feminine figure from the academy's uniform. She dipped her right hand into water sending ripples, which broke the fluid mirror reflecting her sultry face. The water had the right temperature, so she slowly sunk into its calming and soothing embrace.

"You think that the orange dragon was …,"let Kirche her delayed reaction out.

"Dragon's killer, probably," supported Tabitha her unfinished hypothesis.

"But not all. Many scents unknown."

"I must go. Please be careful," said the blue girl abruptly and gave her friend a final warning. She turned around and stepped out of the bathroom. The red lady in the bath ignored her and instead blew some bubbles in delight.

-X-

Out in the open under the canopy of the night sky Yuuto gazed into the dark between the stars and was greeted by the cold and uncaring stare of Halkeginia's twin moons, a large blue one and a smaller red one. The chilly breeze of a spring's night made his skin crawl, a feeling, but more intense, he remembered from his past in the snowy mountains of Pokke. The corpse of the Yian Kut-Ku, which was lying here in this very courtyard a few hours ago, was also gone with the wind. The only things familiar to him now were just some mutilated ears and some lizard skin.

"No homesickness, my arse! You know how to talk big, but on your own you're just helpless," blasted Yuuto himself throwing his rewards down onto the grass, which absorbed most of impact, landing there unharmed with an unsatisfying "flap~".

He sat down on a small slope and looked up to the night sky. The same indifferent glare of the twin moons looked down on him. He slipped out of the cord loops of his back pack and slit down the slope a bit. Lying on the meadow he still saw nothing but the apathetic visage of a stranger's sky.

Yuuto closed his eyes and saw the faces of his mother and father smiling at him in their sweaty outfit in the heat of a smelting furnace. Next four figures appeared in the distance approaching him. They were grinning, smirking and laughing. The four were calling him, challenging him to get up and to join them.

"Ed …, Sef, Ken … Alex, I wonder how you four idiots are doing?"

He rolled to the side and crawled back to his back pack. He seated himself on the right of it. Then he opened a pocket on the outside of the sack and pulled out some batches of greasy Mosswine jerky strips.

"I'm really in another world, huh?"

Resting his left half of his body on his sack bag he took a bite from the stringy meat strips and began chewing silently in the solitude of stars on stranger's shores.

* * *

Writer's comment:

This time I tried my hands on more subtle writing on Yuuto's characterisation. I wanted to use his walk through the building as an allegory to map his feelings. It starts from high, warm and bright of Louise's room and ends up in low, cold and dark of the courtyard.

I am also aware of the canon enchantment that would prevent homesickness, but this restricts me too much and I do not like magical Stockholm syndrome.

Because the chapter was initially shorter than expected I also tried my first flashback and inserted a scene with Kirche and Tabitha I had planned. I quite like the result.

This is going to be the last chapter for this week. I am going to slow down to plan out the story.

As always have fun reading and leave your thoughts in the reviews.


	10. Chapter 9: A new bed

Chapter 9: A new bed

Siesta was in a hurry. After the energy-sapping emergency run during the summoning ceremony she had taken a nap during her lunchbreak. She liked napping. But like anything a human liked to do, she did it longer than she should. Her fellow maids covered for her in the meantime, but even with that help, she still had to make up for her mistake.

The black haired maid was carrying a huge basket full of various capes and cloths in front of her supported by her two hands gripping the handles on the sides.

"I have to hurry. I don't want to get punished," she reminded herself and imagined a cut in her decent but still meagre income. As a maid of a prestigious magic academy, she probably earned more than your regular housemaid. But in her case she had to help her parents support a family of eight children. She had really luck with this job and did not want to lose it so soon.

"I better use the shortcut through the Vestri Courtyard!"

She made a sharp turn to the left and sprinted as fast as she could with the heavy weight of the basket through the corridor until she reached the end of it. She leaped through the squared frame of the door into the dark but moonlit courtyard.

After she picked herself up from the small jump, she dashed off again across the grassy plain. As Siesta staggered through the moist grass of the courtyard, she heard a loud shout warning her from the left side.

"Hey you, be careful! There are some things lying on the floor!"

The warning was a noble gesture but in vain. The maid hit something on the ground with her feet, which caused her to trip over and she scattered clothes of various colours over the verdant surroundings.

Yuuto, who observed the clumsy performance from his front row seat, rushed down the little slope to the maiden's aid. The leftovers from his midnight snack were shoved hastily down in his mouth.

"Or yua orlhet?" came it barely out of Yuuto's stuffed lips, when he arrived at scene of the accident, and reached out his not greased, left hand toward the maid on her spread out knees looking down.

"I beg your pardon?" said the black haired girl confused to the owner of the hand as she reached for it in the darkness. The hand lifted her literally single-handedly up without much effort from her part. The force of it surprised Siesta and she wondered what kind of monster of a man helped her. She focused her eyes and saw the face of the unconscious young man from today, who caused her misery in the first place. He had some kind of meat in his mouth, guessed Siesta from the greasy aroma in the air.

Yuuto gulped the Mosswine meat down his throat, which deflated his expanded cheeks.

"I said 'are you alright'," corrected Yuuto himself now that there was room for him to breath.

"Ah, yes! Thank you for your concern," answered the maid flabbergasted to the young but matured voice in the dark.

"I warned you, but whatever," set the voice nonchalantly aside. Siesta thought she could made out a figure in the dark shrugging its shoulders.

"How about you picking up the Kut-Ku things I warned about and me collecting your large laundry," suggested the stranger and began his task immediately without even waiting for consent from her. And he was quite quick at it. By the time Siesta registered what was going on he had already filled the laundry basket with half of the scattered pieces of clothing.

She decided to go with the flow and searched for the 'Kut-Ku things' on the ground. It took her not long to find the sheets of scaly leather. Two pieces looked like some yellow leather fans and the other two 'things' were some considerably larger, blue wings with folding lines. She folded the wings and stacked everything on top of each other and approached Yuuto, who had just finished his collecting marathon.

"Perfect," he said to the incoming Siesta with a smile and the thump of his left hand up.

"Wait here a moment, I pick up my stuff and then help you with the basket."

He immediately ran up the light slope. After securing his sag bag on his back, he jumped down from his little stage back down. He picked up the large laundry basket as soon he arrived at Siesta's destination.

"I'm ready! Where shall we go?" asked the chivalrous man the confused maid eagerly.

"Please, Sir! You do not have to concern yourself with my menial labour," refused the black haired girl in response to the unexpected kindness. She had heard of a skirt-chasing noble among the students and she did not want to earn the ire of some of female students. Instead of some shallow compliments or empty excuses her ears were filled with a heartfelt, bright chuckle, which echoed into the dark night.

"Sorry, I just had to laugh because I'm no noble, you know," slipped it out between his jolly and amused giggles, which send waves through the laundry basket in his arms, but no piece of clothing fell down.

"But no commoner I know has the money to acquire such fancy armour!" exclaimed Siesta still in staunch denial.

"Does the Great Maccao armour really look expensive?" he asked the maid, while questioning his looks with a gaze downwards his body.

"I thought it was cheap to make, but I think it's not the time for fashion questions. Weren't you in a hurry?"

Siesta gasped at the realisation and ran off towards her actual destination, the laundry hall of this academy. On the way she noticed that her delivery got considerably lighter and realised she took the things from the armoured man. She was about to make a turnaround, when she noticed from the corner of her right eye that the armoured up man had been running alongside her with the heavy laundry basket at her pace all along. Instead of questioning what was happening she gladly took advantage of the lucky circumstances. The pair arrived soon at the laundry hall even faster than, if it were Siesta on her own without her unfortunate accident.

The hall was in the same size range like the fountain Yuuto visited earlier, but it was the standard cube room instead of a circular one. The walls consisted of simple grey bricks and the interior was filled with other laundry baskets of various sizes. Running alongside the longer walls of the room were five rows of stone tables with benches on each side. The tables were crowned with uneven rows of round, wooden laundry tubs.

At least that was what Yuuto could make out in the dark. Siesta lit up a little portable oil lamp in the form of a cylindrical lantern and led the way to the designated place for her delivery. She instructed him to deposit the whole basket there.

"Thank goodness, I was able to make it before the Head maid checked it up," uttered the maid in obvious relief. Now she did not have to worry about a job change. She turned to the chivalrous man, who helped her archived it.

"Thank you, for your assistance. My name is Siesta. May I have the honour to learn of your name?" she asked politely and dropped a curtesy revealing a bit of the black pantyhose she wore as part of her uniform.

"I'm Yuuto, a hunter. Nice to meet you, Siesta," he answered truthfully accompanied by a polite bow with his naked head. His feather hat was pressed against his left shoulder guard before he crowned himself with it again. With his head raised up he then formed a goofy grin.

"And now you know of a commoner, who wears fancy armour."

A statement that caused Siesta to blush in deep red for everyone to bear witness were it not for the darkness of the night masking most of it even with a lit up lantern out. Unfortunately for her Yuuto was no ordinary hunter, which caused him to chuckle a bit at her embarrassment.

"Please, relax. I was just having fun with you," he tried to calm her down, which she indeed did a few seconds later.

"I was actually searching for a maid like you, so I gladly helped you out in return for my request."

"If that is the case, it would be my pleasure to fulfil your wish," she replied with eagerness to return the favour back to Yuuto.

"What is it that you need?"

"Hmm, actually make it two," responded Yuuto troubled by her courtly code of conduct.

"First, I need a permanent resting place for the night. Do you know of a possible room?"

Siesta put her left hand on her chin, while supporting it with her right hand, which was holding the lantern causing light and darkness to shift on her pondering face.

"I think I may know of a place that will suit its purpose perfectly. What about your second request?"

"Ah yes, my second request … It's simple but it's something only you can fulfil, Siesta," led Yuuto her on with a mischievous smirk on the corner of his lips in anticipation of his trap bearing fruit.

Her eyes was gleaming with eagerness as she approached him with her hands clasped together getting sandwiched between her ample bust and Yuuto's hard cuirass along with the lantern.

"Please, have no restraint and utter your wish. I will try my best to fulfil it."

"Ok, then here is my request. Siesta, please stop being so formal with me. I'm no noble, so you don't have be like that. Just be yourself, you know," said Yuuto in a serious but friendly tone before he let his restrained amusement burst out in a storm of loud laughter clamouring through the silence of the night.

For the second time tonight was Siesta blushing in a deep red out of embarrassment spawned by the schadenfreude of the same stranger.

"Mou, that's not funny, Monsieur Yuuto," pouted Siesta with arms crossed and her gaze averted.

"Well, it's seems you adjust very well to your orders. I'm impressed, you know," replied sardonically before letting out a second wave of more constrained chuckles.

"But you can also drop off the 'Monsieur'."

"That I can't do, you are a respectable man, Yuuto, and that's something I need to express," countered Siesta pouring all her earnest in those words like before. Yuuto felt the burning admiration gazing at him through the darkness.

"Now you're making me blush in embarrassment, you know. That's not bad," admitted Yuuto, while scratching the back of his head in pleasant uneasiness.

"Very well, it's your own decision and I respect that."

"Thank you, Monsieur Yuuto," said Siesta simply. "Shall we go then, to your resting chamber?"

"Lead on, Siesta, lead on," he gestured overdramatic with a curtsy of his own, which looked rather wonky than the one from the maid he tried to copy.

"I will follow you." Siesta giggled brightly like an innocent child amused by his silly attempt at performing courtly manners.

"Then please do so, Monsieur Yuuto." She then made her way out of the laundry hall to guide her new acquaintance, who picked himself up from his ridiculous pose, through the night to his new home.

-X-

The office of Principal Osmond was as grand as it befitted a person of such title of such a respected institution in Halkeginia. But Osmond was neither a man of titles nor ideologies. He was a practical man. Especially if it concerned the two things he loved the most woman and peace. So his room was sparely decorated, only the necessary things were present. The large, half circular room had a focal point in form of a giant, round arched window opposite the entrance door, which was thrice as large as the elder mage sitting in his large and padded armchair at his massive, wooden office desk in front of the glass surface. In front of his desk were a small, flat table and two large comfortable, red sofas running alongside the flat square on the floor. The rest were simple but massive, wooden bookshelves placed along the walls of the office like marble pillars in temples of old.

In this dark and almost empty room Principal Osmond, an old and wise looking man with a long, grey hair and beard garbed in a figure hiding, jet black robe, met Professor Colbert.

"And how was the clean-up of dragon corpse, Jean?" asked the old man jolly the bespectacled man sitting on the right, red sofa in front of him sipping on a steaming cup of black tea. An oil lamp lantern was placed on their respective tables to light each other up for the informal meeting.

"Not a very difficult task with two capable earth mages such as Madame Chevreuse and Mademoiselle Longueville," answered Jean Colbert after placing the cup of tea on the flat table to fill it again with the teapot, which stood there ready for it.

"But it took us quite a while to get rid of it actually," he finished pouring the tea and took some sugar from a little jar with a small spoon inside the sweet sand. He rained the content of the spoon carefully in his cup of tea. The motion was repeated a second time before he began stirring the tea with a separate small spoon.

"We moved the corpse outside the academy's walls with the help of some mud mannequins from Mademoiselle Longueville."

"Ah yes, Miss Longueville. She's a quite talented earth mage, isn't she? Excuse, me please," he commented and waved his hand to cause the teapot to float through the air landing on his desk with a thud and rattles of the lid.

"Yes, impressive indeed. Where did you pick up such a woman?" asked the magic teacher curiously.

"I was drunk in a bar during one of my trips to the capital and I accidently groped her fine ass. So as an apology I offered her a job as my secretary," told the lecherous geezer another of his outrageous tales nonchalantly to his employed Professor, while pouring some tea inside his cup.

"Hahaha~, you never fail to amaze me, old man Osmond," chuckled the Professor in unsurprised delight to the tale of the Principal and took a sip from his cup. He doubted that it was an actual accident, though.

"Back to the previous topic, outside the walls I tried to burn down the corpse, which has been deprived of its wings and ears."

Osmond arched one of his grey eyebrows in an inquisitive expression as he stirred his hot cup of just black tea. He passed on the sugar. It was not a dislike for sweet things, but more a preference for food to rely on its natural, own aroma.

"It seems our young huntsman has reaped his rewards," explained the Professor to the old man, who nodded in response and gestured him with stretched out hand to go on with his story.

"Like I said I was trying to burn the corpse with a spell, but it was nothing but a spark on its hide and the fire would always fizzle out. I assume it is a fire drake given the heat resistance and the bright orange colouring of the scales. So I asked Madame Chevreuse and Mademoiselle Longueville to dig up a large, deep hole to bury the corpse and leave it in mother earth's hands."

He then took a long and satisfying sip from the excellent, albionese, black tea to bedew his dry and coarse throat after his long narration. He wondered how the Principal got his hands on the tea. The civil war ran riot on the floating island nation, so trading was heavily hampered because of the insecurities around commercial assets and of course the rampaging violence. No reasonable merchant would risk his life for a meagre short term profit in such a disturbing environment, except merchant of death, who probably provided arms to both participant parties and accumulated an immoral amount of riches.

"I see, good job to you three," praised the old man his employees and took a sip from his tea cup as well and form a satisfying smirk on his wrinkled lips. To him the tea was fine enough to justify all the black market deals he had gone through to obtain it. But the joyful moment lasted not long as he had to ask another, more unpleasant question.

"And what about the runes on the hand of our hunter familiar, have you found anything during your little research in the academy's classified library?"

Both of them took another sip from the exquisite tea before the unfolding, foreboding discussion. Professor Colbert raised himself up from the red sofa and strode toward the desk of the Principal. On the way he pulled out a heavy, plain and very old looking book from a bag slung around his torso to the right. He slipped through the pages before he halted on a page marked by a tiny, red coloured snippet of paper. He turned the book around and laid the double page out on the desk in front of Osmond's curious face.

"These unknown runes on his hand are only known to us from tales of legends. According to the sources these runes were last seen six thousand years ago," explained Professor Colbert to the Principal in a serious tone and like before he simply nodded in return.

"These are the runes of the Gandálfr, the legendary Left Hand of God and familiar of the Founder Brimir himself!"

He pointed his right index finger to the section in question in order for the Principal to see with his own experienced eyes. He glanced over it and confirmed the information.

"The familiar of the third daughter of the house of Vallière is the Gandálfr. That means in return …"

"That she is a mage of the void, the lost power of the pentagon, a power only available to Brimir according to the legends," completed the Professor the old man's conclusion.

"Well, that explains her lack of affinity to the other elements at long last and the explosions," spouted the old man flatly and lifted the teapot up to asked his employee for another round. He nodded and brought his teacup through the air with a wave of his hand. The Principal then poured some of the tea inside both cups. There was no need for stirring anymore as the tea cooled down enough for their tongue. Both took a large sip from the mild bitter liquid, even Professor Colbert refrained from some usual sweetening. The tea was still good, though.

"Jean, my friend. We have to keep this to ourselves. I will not allow harm to befall on a student of mine," said the determined old man with a grim expression overriding his usual jolly and gentle face of a grandfather.

Professor Colbert simply nodded in response. He was well aware of the implications of the situation. The emergence of void mage was scandalous enough for an uproar, which would attract the attention of power hungry individuals. But the circumstances were even direr with the civil war in Albion because of the Reconquista movement. If these people heard of Louise they would not hesitate kidnapping her for their war effort. He then took his last sip from his cup tonight.

"This some fine tea, I hope I will have the pleasure to experience it in a small bistro in Albion as well."

"I hope so as well, Jean. And the ladies of Albion are also an attraction to behold. Maybe you'll find a bride there."

Both man let a chuckle echo through the dark night.

-X-

The room Yuuto arrived in was just half as big as Louise's sleeping chamber but more than enough for someone like him. The interior was decked in plain grey brick tiles like the laundry hall. A small circle of a window hovered in the upper corner of the wall opposite the entrance. Moonlight shone through it giving Yuuto a better view on the sparse furniture of this room.

In the far back under the window was a simple wooden bed filled with a straw mattress covered by a dirty white blanket. The actual blanket for covering laid folded on the mattress together with a flat, cotton cushion.

On the left side wall was a rusted metal locker as wide as Yuuto. Beside it was a waist high wooden cube, an object box like one in his homeland. On the other side stood a writing desk similar to Louise's above it was an oil lamp fixed to the grey walls.

"Wow, this looks like a smaller version of my room back in Yukumo," thought Yuuto stunned due to the similarities.

"This is the commander's cabin for the academy guards," informed him Siesta from the side, who led him to this place.

"The guards are no more, so I thought it would be the desired chambers for a martial person such as you, Monsieur Yuuto. As a thank you for earlier, I picked the larger commander room instead of the smaller common soldier ones."

"Thanks, Siesta," expressed the hunter his gratitude to the maid as he wandered around the space examining the room more in detail.

"This place is perfect like you said."

Siesta giggled a bit in delight to his overenthusiastic expression in regards to this simple sleeping room compared to the certainly more luxurious ones of the nobles above them. Even the room Siesta resided in for the night was more spacious than this.

"If there is anything else you need, please, let me or any other maid know," said Siesta and made her way to her own room. Before she closed the door she wished him a good night's rest.

"Sleep well, Monsieur Yuuto," expressed the maid her intentions.

"Thanks Siesta, you too. I see you tomorrow then."

She left the small cabin with the light of her lantern drenching Yuuto in the dark mantle of the night. Only moonlight spent some charity and provided some bit of cold guidance.

He moved to the locker and opened it. It was empty as expected with dust and spider webs decorating its corner. Then Yuuto began stripping off his armour and weapons to place it inside. Next he took his back pack to the object box and filled it with everything his bag was loaded with until it was nothing more than a flat piece of fabric.

He then took his Team Signal in his hand. With a few quick movements of his fingers he adjusted the regulator for time and intensity of pitch. Then he placed it on the writing desk in the corner beside the entrance before he let himself fall on the mattress of his new bed.

"Man, the only thing left is my little Moofy," he mused in the darkness before letting out some little laughs into the night as he remembered a heated discussion between him and Ken, a friend from his hunting group.

The matter of the silly quarrel was the question of which was the better pet, a Poogie or a Moofy. Ken was a staunch traditionalist and defended his trusty pink piggy. He argued that the variety of clothing for it was abundant enough for a win. Yuuto dismissed it and vouched for the new pet because of its fluffy fur. Sef was grumbling from the side-lines proclaiming how stupid and childish the two were. But everyone knew he wanted to cut into the dispute as he was an admirer of cute things, but he had to keep up his silly façade of coolness, whereas Ed was bawling his eyes out in clamorous laughter at the ridiculousness of the subject matter. The discussion, which almost escalated in a brawl for the superiority of their pet, was interrupted by Alex, the oldest and leader of their group, who schooled them with a beat down on his own. All five were banned for a year from the bar they were drinking in at that time.

The scene brought a silent smirk on his face. He then picked up the cushion laid his head on it, while wrapping himself in a sheet of linen.

"I guess this is my new home now," declared Yuuto melancholic before closing his weary eyes and tried to get some rest laying his worries aside for the night.

* * *

Writer's comment:

This chapter I introduced Siesta to expand Yuuto's personality through interaction with her. I am a bit worried that Yuuto comes over as a Mary Sue. So I gave him playful streak of teasing and joking with Siesta.

And regarding all the spelling mistakes and convoluted wording I will correct them some time later. I just want to concentrate on writing for now.

As always enjoy and review the chapter, if you like.


	11. Chapter 10: New world and old problems

Chapter 10: Brave new world, same old problems

The relaxing night for Yuuto's rest was suddenly cut short by a deafening, loud buzzing noise from the desk in the corner of his new, living room. With an annoyed groan he slowly returned from the realms of dreams to the physical world. Yuuto rubbed his eyes in order to get rid of the dust in his eyes allowing him to greet the morning with open eyes. The room was still the same one Siesta had introduced to him last night, it even was draped in the shadows of the late night and early day as the sun had yet to rise.

He got up and walked wobbly to the desk to put an end to the grinding echoes in his ears. He then sunk into the chair in front of the desk. After a few moments of groggy confusion he instantly snapped back at the realisation of the new day slowly breaking through his window.

"Uwaah, I hope I can remember my way through to Louise," yawned Yuuto still tired but now ready for his first day at Louise's service. He then took a moment to weigh the best set of equipment for his task at hand

"I have to wake her up for lectures, hmm. I think wearing armour is too much of an overkill for this," he thought regarding the circumstances that he was in fact not out in the wild but in an educational institution.

"I think I go with a full support bag of medicinal items for an emergency. In the case of actual danger I add some traps, flash and smoke bombs."

He looked to the locker and wondered if it was beneficial to look threatening or harmless, when walking among the students during their lecturing time. He decided to go with a more threatening appearance as he would attract attention from the nobles regardless of his effort to please them. So he walked up to the rusty looker and took out his trusty sword and shield of the Hunter's Knife set. He quickly fastened the shield accompanied by grinding sizzles of the leather straps. The sword was easily secured with a satisfying clank of the magnets on his belt covering the carving blade that was with him during the night. The armour stayed in the locker as a compromise between his two approaches tackling the scrutiny of noble eyes.

As the next course of action was the preparation of his back pack. This procedure did not take long as he had already arranged the object box right to the locker last night. He grabbed the necessary bottles and flasks of potions, energy drinks, antidotes and the rest he deemed useful. All of it were packed tightly and secure inside the bag. After that he looked for the bombs and traps. The bombs were stuck inside the exterior pockets and on the front of his belt alongside the emergency potions for quick use. The larger traps were placed inside the back pack on top of the bottles before he closed the lid on all of it. Compared to yesterday the sack was now not even half as big as before.

Ready for his mission he slung the filled bag on his shoulder and walked towards the door grabbing the Team Signal along the way, which he hung on his belt on the right side of his waist. Standing before the heavy, dark metal door he noticed a sheet of paper sticking out under the entrance. Yuuto curiously kneeled down to pick it up to read and surprisingly he could decipher the halkeginian script.

 _'Good morning Monsieur Yuuto,_

 _I hope you slept well. This is a map of the academy. I also marked yours and Mademoiselle Vallière's position with a red dot. In any case I'll be here for help._

 _Thanks again, Siesta'_

"You're a lifesaver, Siesta," smiled Yuuto in response to this incredible nice act of forethought. He then unfolded the map to reveal the path through this labyrinth to his master's resting chamber. After memorising the steps and turns he folded the map and squeezed it between his hips and belt. He opened the door and made his way straight for his sleeping princess.

-X-

Back at the doorsteps of Louise's room he firmly and loudly knocked on her wooden door with his knuckles to announce his presence. Yuuto waited for an answer but only silence greeted him. So he repeated the procedure again with the same result following it. He decided to open the door and step inside. After closing the door behind him he saw the reason for the lack of response. Louise was still sleeping peacefully in her soft and fluffy canopy bed.

"Hmm, I should advise her to lock the door during the night," remarked Yuuto on his way to her bed. At the side of her bed he again noticed the beauty of her face with the softness of her charm more apparent this time. Hair pink hair surrounded her like a cushion on its on with her small head placed on it. Her closed eyes in combination with her stumble nose and half open, glossy lips gave her the innocence of a child.

"She really looks like a little angel sleeping like this," thought Yuuto absentminded before realising his actual purpose in standing next to her like a creepy Khezu.

"Hey, Louise! It's time to wake up for your lectures," he yelled mildly to not cause a commotion with the neighbouring residents. Instead of a rising Louise he just saw her turning in her bed. Yuuto rolled his eyes in response to his master's heavy sleeping quirk. Then he noticed his little, grey box of a Team Signal hanging on his right hip. He snapped with his fingers at his dawning mischievous idea to solve his current predicament. He picked up the box from his belt and adjusted the pitch and volume of the incoming buzz for waking his master. He approached Louise's ears with it before he set off the alarm.

The noise was not as deafening as the one Yuuto set for himself earlier, but so close to one's ears would certainly shock people and that was how the little lady in pink reacted to it. She immediately snapped her spine straight with her tiny hands covering her ears to try to shut off the annoying buzz. The gesture was not necessary as Yuuto cut the alarm off the instant Louise woke up.

"Rise and shine, Master," he greeted her with a bright smile like the sun shining through the window into the room.

"It's time for you to get up and prepare for your lectures."

"Who are you again?" breathed Louise out in a drowsy yawn as she stretched her arms and legs out.

"That's rude, you know. It's me, Yuuto. Monster Hunter and your familiar," he exclaimed firmly with a tap of his right hand on his left shoulder.

She looked at him with a sleepy gaze and blinked a few times before her eyes widened in realisation of who stood in front of her. She did not recognise him at first because of his lack of armour, but the sword and shield gave Yuuto's identity away seconds later. He instead wore a tight body suit that gave him the appearance as if he wore cotton white, sleeveless shirt and dark green leather pants with connected straps arching over his shoulders like a pair of braces. A zigzag pattern of red strings similar to a simple cat's cradle figure ran across his ripped stomach and the sides of his muscular upper legs. Louise remembered seeing some clothing like this at the borders of southern Germania. If she recalled it correctly it was named lederhosen. Besides that his feet were sunk in plain, beige leather shoes with the red string pattern embracing his lower legs like a long sock. His hands wore some dark green half-gloves that only covered the back of his hand and the wrists in a broad, brown ribbon again showing a zigzag pattern this time in light yellow.

Louise rubbed her eyes and looked again to confirm that Yuuto was still wearing these lederhosen from Germania. Indeed he was still standing in front of her in this outfit.

"I apologize, Yuuto. I could not recognise you at first. What are you actually wearing? Where is your armour?" cascaded it out of Louise's flustered lips like a waterfall.

"Uh, this? This is my underwear, you know," answered her Yuuto with a puzzled expression and casted his gaze down to inspect his cloths for something suspicious, but he found fortunately nothing he considered remarkable.

"This particular design is from Bherna village. A nice, idyllic community in the mountains near the Jurassic Frontier. A place full of Moofahs, you know."

Normally such a body cover would hardly go as undergarments, but in the case of Yuuto it probably counted as such. The suit let hardly anything to imaginations. His loins were covered at least, but the muscles of the rest of his body were rippling through the fabric and his bare naked arms showed the full glory of his toned, streamlined figure of a marble statue.

"I-It do-does not matter, now. I am awake now," stammered the awkward Louise averting her gaze from Yuuto's magnificent body.

"Please, wait outside for my command like yesterday."

"As you wish, Master," said the humble hunter in a slight bow before disappearing through the entrance and cutting the contact by closing the wooden door. Just like yesterday he waited in front of Louise's room with his back resting on the door. This time the corridor was a little bit livelier than yesterday. Occasionally a few female students were stepping out of their residents and jumped in shock, surprise or both. Some even let out a mild shriek in response of Yuuto standing guard. He ignored all this commotion, but wondered if this was a female exclusive area until some equally flabbergasted male students appeared on the scene in their bed hair.

"At least the females are taking care of their bodies," joked Yuuto amused well aware of his hypocrisy as his short hair looked just as messy as the boys stumbling out of their bed into the corridor.

After a while he heard the knocking noise reverberate through his back and some muffled callings of his name. So he turned around and stepped back inside the abode of Louise. She stood before him in her uniform as he remembered from yesterday, but with her hair still tied up in the plait he devised from her hair brushing session. And just like yesterday she pushed the plain hairbrush in his hands. So the pair of them proceeded like yesterday. This time Yuuto unfolded her pink hair to brush it gently and carefully as he did last time. It took not nearly as long as this time because the bound hairstyle prevented too much twisting during sleep. Satisfied Louise got up from her stool and made her way through the door into the corridor to begin her walk towards her class room. Yuuto followed her a few steps behind her like the faithful servant his master always had desired.

-X-

The class room had the same basic layout as the rooms at the Wycademy Yuuto occasionally visited for delivery of some monster parts or hunting reports for the researchers there. It was a half circle with concentric steps forming the terrace for the audience, who seated themselves on wooden chairs at wooden desks. The focal point of all these circles was of course a lectern in the middle in front of a large blackboard.

The pair of mage and hunter took a place in the upper corners of the room and waited for the teacher to arrive. Whispers and chatter filled the air in the meantime. Some were about fashion styles or latest rumours other about politics or the charms of their newly acquired familiars. But the most discussed topic was Yuuto's presence among them at his master's side.

"Isn't that the human familiar?"

"Yeah, the one from Louise the Zero."

"Are we sure she didn't just pay a peasant to pose as a familiar?"

"What in Brimir's name is he wearing?"

"I admit for a commoner he isn't bad on the eyes."

"He's wearing weapons! Is this even allowed?"

The cacophony of chatter was brought to silence by the entrance of an opulent, older woman in a long, purple robe with a big, pointy hat in the same shade on her auburn hair. Yuuto recalled seeing her with the balding man from his summoning yesterday. She took her rightful place at the lectern and started to address every student in the room.

"Everyone, congratulations on making it to your second year," lauded the purple lady and immediately followed up with her introduction to the crowd.

"I am Madame Chevreuse, and I have been appointed to this respectable Academy of Magic for the next following year. My element is earth. I bear the runic name, Chevreuse the Red Moon. As such I will be your teacher for earth-based magic. Now back to the basics. What are the four great powers of magic?"

A rose tip hand shot up and a flamboyant, blonde boy rose up from his seat to answer the question.

"Ah-yes, the four foundations of magic are fire, water, air and earth," proclaimed the boy named Guiche, if Yuuto remembered it correctly from his irritating encounter yesterday.

"And what a coincidence, Madame. My element also lies in the earth just like you. I am Guiche de Gramont, bearer of the runic name, the Brass!"

"Yep, he's annoying like Vespoid or Bnahabra," commented Yuuto in his mind and saw to his delight many agreeing faces in the crowd, which brought a smirk on his lips.

"Nice to meet you and thank you, Monsieur Gramont. From the four foundations we build more complex spells. Every mage has an affinity to one of the four, but it is the mastery over all four that allow mages to reach their full power. Depending on the number of elements in control, a mage is classified as magic practitioner of their respective rank, which is dot, line, triangle or square. In my case I am a triangle mage, which means I can perform spells as mix of three elements or as powerful triple earth combination. The important lesson for you, young mages, is to not neglect your study of the other powers. Now back to earth," explained the teacher as she let her stern but warm gaze jump from one face of a young student to another.

Yuuto was listening keenly to her little lecture on magic in Halkeginia. He was curious what constituted as magic and more importantly how was it actually performed. Since his summoning yesterday he only heard of it from Louise, but he did not witness any magic with his own eyes.

"To survive is to adapt. For adaption you need knowledge. Only fools wouldn't try to learn from their preys and surroundings," reminded Yuuto himself of an advice from Alex back in his days learning the ropes of hunting.

"Earth is an important and fundamental aspect of magic. It lay the foundation to all construction based spells or reinforcement and revitalisation spells. That is why I will demonstrate a basic spell in alchemy. Be sure to memorise it," announced the purple lady at the lectern to the students in front of her. She let some tiny stones roll on its surface. Then she flicked her wand up in the air before directing at the stones now lying still. She whispered some words Yuuto did not understand causing the stones to flash in a bright light. After the glow subsided he saw that the grey stones have acquired a glistering, golden paint.

"Is that gold?!" exclaimed a female figure in red, which Yuuto deduced as the fiery Kirche, who he had the pleasure to meet during her passionate moment at the fountain hall.

"No, this is brass," denied Chevreuse the hopes of the Redhead, who sunk back into her seat in disappointment.

"Now, I want one of you to try it out. How about you in the corner?" asked the teacher and pointed toward the Pinkhead at Yuuto's right side. The whole class room winced at the words of their teacher and tried to dissuade her from her proposal.

"I would suggest you to refrain from it."

"Yeah, this is not a good idea, Madame Chevreuse!"

"That's right! It's dangerous! For all of us!"

"If you need a demonstration, I will perform. But please, do not let her cast a spell!"

The last ticked Louise off and she stood up and loudly proclaimed her eagerness to proof them all wrong.

"I will do it. Please, let me try, Madame!"

Yuuto also stood up to make space for his little master on her way out of the benches. She walked the steps quickly down and arrived seconds later at the lectern in front of her teacher. Professor Chevreuse instructed her again on the alchemy spell before Louise repeated the motion. In the meantime the other students cowered behind their seats and desks in fear to Yuuto's confusion. Some even left the room entirely. Like the Bluehead from his summoning, who nonchalantly strode across the room and exited through the door.

Soon Yuuto's question was answered, when an incredible force of heat and wind pressure teared through the air of the room pushing people to the walls and crushing the wooden furniture. Yuuto, who was caught off guard, was blown off his seat and landed unharmed on the cold stone floor. He got up to his feet without a problem. The same could not be said about some of the students, who lied their groaning in pain. The unluckiest of all people was the teacher Chevreuse in the epicentre of the explosion, who was knocked unconscious by the force. Louise was to Yuuto's relief and surprise almost unharmed except minor tears and cuts on her uniform and her rumpled up hair. Soon the recovered class was up in arms and flinging names toward Louise downstairs.

"For Founder's sake, I told you it was dangerous!"

"Seriously, why is she still in this school?"

"I would be rich, if I got a coin every time she failed at spell."

"Maybe I should transfer? This is too dangerous for me!"

"It's the same with you every time, Louise the Zero!"

The last part was repeated endlessly until it echoed loudly through the whole class room in a malicious singsong, which purpose was only to humiliate Louise. She had casted her teary eyes down to the floor avoiding the rioting crowd. Yuuto saw that the poor girl had barely the will to restrain her from breaking down completely.

He understood what was going on around him. Even someone like him living in small, idyllic communities or bustling, multicultural cities knew to discern this phenomenon as plain and simple bullying. It was rare among his people. The pressure of wild monsters distracted most people from such foolish endeavours. But children, who were raised in protected and save environments did engage in such traumatising acts. Fortunately those youngsters soon learn the disadvantage of it in the wild, where you need the cooperation of everyone to survive. So it was possible to forego of bullying very young, but compared to the disgraces of juveniles here, who still enjoy such vile entertainment, even the cruelty of innocence was forgivable.

Yuuto knew what he had to do and its consequences were of no concern for him. He was a commoner. Whatever regards these nobles had for a low-life like him was not worth a crying, innocent girl like Louise. Sure she had her flaws like any other person. In her case it was her explosive temperament. But in his eyes she was just a girl like any other walking the soils of earth. Nothing warranted such disgusting harassment.

Yuuto slammed down both of his clenched fist on the wooden desk in front of him so that a bursting roar stormed through the whole room. The wooden desk cracked cleanly in the middle because of impact of the shield on Yuuto's right forearm. The pieces crumbled in an audible rumbling as Yuuto rose up from his seat to address the startled crowd underneath him.

"THIS IS NOT A TIME FOR SUCH DISGUSTING AND DISGRACEFUL BEHAVIOUR," roared Yuuto like Tigrex going berserk on a herd of helpless Kelbis.

"THERE LIES AN UNCONSCIOUS PERSON! GET YOU PRIORITIES STRAIGHT, GOGDAMMIT!"

The stunned crowd blinked a few moments before some of the more aggressive students turned on him. The rest kept quiet in some notion of shame. Yuuto ignored the commotion around him and jumped the stairs down to Louise. There he placed his left hand on her right shoulders and patted her a few times as small gesture of consolation. The equally stunned Louise just looked up to him with her tears reddened eyes and running nose.

He then moved over to the unconscious body of the teacher Chevreuse. He examined her under the annoying commotion of the class. Yuuto had some basic knowledge of medicine. He could not diagnose a disease, let alone heal it, but he knew to fix some broken bones or stitch up some wounds on his own. So he deduced there were no dire, external injuries. To make sure that nothing escaped his watchful eyes he grabbed a little glass bottle from his belt. He opened the lady's mouth and poured the green fluid content inside. Next he reached inside his bag and pulled out a similar glass flask with yellow liquid this time. Yuuto repeated his motion from earlier and the potions were bearing fruits. The small cuts and bruises were healing almost instantly and colour returned to the lady's ashen-pale face.

Then he placed his arms under the legs and shoulders of the unconscious teacher. Without much trouble he lifted her entire body up and carefully rested her head on his right shoulder. The class had subsided to silence in the meantime to study what the commoner was doing.

"Louise, can you show me the way to your doctors?" Yuuto asked his master flatly. She responded with simple nods and walked swiftly towards the door. She held the wooden door open to let Yuuto carefully navigate through the exit with the unconscious teacher in his arms. With a thud of the closing door the pair of mage and hunter left the silent class.

* * *

Writer's comment:

My apologies for my late update, I was a little bit busy last week and still planning the story out.

In this chapter I am not sure if I am portraying the bullying tastefully. I do not want to make it too melodramatic. So I keep it short. I am also not sure if Yuuto's reaction feels genuine because he only knows Louise for a day.

If you are confused about the different chapter names, I had to change it for the overview because it has character limits. It irritates me, but it is nothing serious.

Aside from my worries, please enjoy the read. As always feedbacks are always welcome.


	12. Chapter 11: Lessons from another culture

Chapter 11: Lessons from another culture

The pair of mage and hunter made their way through the stone maze of bricks and walls. After minutes of walking they arrived at the doorsteps of the sick bay of this academy. Louise opened the wide, wooden door for Yuuto and Professor Chevreuse in his arms. The room both stepped in had the same layout as the laundry hall. It had four walls of grey bricks and was filled with equipment. In this case wooden beds like his new one but with actual white cotton mattresses covered by linen blankets in the same shade. The three rows of beds were also lined up alongside the longer walls. In the far back were two wooden doors leading somewhere unseen, but a figure in white immediately revealed itself at the pair's arrival.

It was the Head nurse of the academy, who was coming up to meet them. Before either of them could explain their situation the woman in white already deduced their little accident.

"No need for words. I can already imagine what happened by the presence of the unconscious Madame Chevreuse in your arms and the accompanying Mademoiselle Vallière," said the elderly woman in response to their sudden appearance.

"Please follow me. I had a bed already prepared just in case something happened."

The Head nurse led them to a bed on the far left of the room near the entrance, where she hurriedly appeared through. Yuuto carefully placed the purple lady on the cotton white bed. He then got out of the way for the nurse to make her inspection run on the unconscious patient. She pulled her thin wand and pointed it at various spots on Professor Chevreuse's body, first the forehead, next the chest and at the end at all four limbs. Every time she made contact the wand was glowing in a swirl of blue and green lights at the end of the thin stick. After she finished her quick inspection the nurse turned around to face the pair of mage and hunter, who were studying her mesmerised from behind.

"It seems they are no internal injuries from what I can infer from Madame Chevreuse's bloodstream. I have no details about bone cracks at the moment. For that I need more than quick body fluid inspection. I don't think that's necessary, though. For now everything's alright," informed the stern nurse Louise and Yuuto in front of her.

"But it's kind of strange. Normally people involved in Mademoiselle Vallière's incidents have traces of burns and cuts. She's unblemished on the surface," wondered the Head nurse with an arm supporting her pondering head.

"The cause for this is probably me," answered Yuuto, which caused the elderly lady to raise an eyebrow as she eyed him suspiciously from head to toe.

"I poured some healing potions from my hometown down her throat as a security measure."

"Oh really? These must be some potent medicines for sure. Outside magic nothing heals so quickly," responded the fascinated nurse.

"Yeah, but unfortunately the ingredients aren't available here," abated the hunter her hopes politely and bowed slightly. She just smiled warmly to his friendly gesture and returned to her work through the wooden door next to Louise and Yuuto.

The two then prepared for their own leave through the wide door on the other side of the sick bay.

-X-

Once outside the bed filled grey walls Yuuto intended to walk his way back, but not to return to the horde of harassing Jaggis but rather to escort Louise back to her room. However, he was stopped in his tracks by a soft tug from a delicate hand grasping a portion of his body suit around the waist.

"Thanks, Yuuto. Fo-for ear-earlier I me-mean," trickled it out of Louise amidst a pitiful sobbing that soon swelled into a sorrowful and shame filled cry. Large orbs of tears ran down her snow coloured cheeks until they fell quietly on the grey, paved floor creating a dark, damped mark on it. With her head hung down she tried to catch the stream of tears from her face with the sleeves on her tiny hands, but more dark marks painted the grey floor instead. Her muffled, coarse weeping echoed in the corridors letting everyone who might came by bear witness to Louise's pitiful appearance.

Yuuto was not sure how to react to this raw display of emotion, but his arms moved before his mind could make a decision. His hands reached out and gently got hold of her reddened face flooded with tears. He pulled her to his side and let her cry into his stomach because she could not touch his chest. Yuuto wrapped his arms around her in a tight and tender embrace to comfort her wounded soul with tender pats on her ruffled head to tell her that he was at her side. He could feel her muffled voice and trembling shoulders resonate through his body.

Neither of them knew how long they stood in the empty corridor before Louise calmed down and separated herself from Yuuto's caress. Her drenched face left a moist mark on his clothes.

"Thanks again, Yuuto. I'm sorry to let you see me in this pathetic state," said Louise shyly between couples of sniffs, while averting her gaze from Yuuto in front of her.

"You must be disappointed to hear that your Master is failure of mage, a zero, Louise the Zero."

Yuuto rested his left hand on her shoulder, which caused the depressed girl to look up to him with a surprised and questioning expression. He returned her face with a warm, understanding smile and moved his hand from her shoulder to the top of her head to ruffle up her dishevelled hair even more.

"I don't care," stated Yuuto with a big, goofy grin and let go off her mess of a hair style, which suited the confused Louise, who now tried to clean up the chaos.

"But I do understand you better now, Louise. How about a little chat on the bench there?"

He pointed to a plain wooden bench at the side of the corridor near the entrance to the sick bay under large pointed window out of stained glass. Louise nodded slowly in response and the two made their way toward the bench. Once there Yuuto let himself on it in a relaxing slouch, whereas Louise trailing behind seated herself silently without much attention on his right. After she took her place he then leaned forward and supported his elbows on his legs with his clasped hands hanging low.

"We hunters also divide ourselves in classes, you know," began Yuuto to speak in a calm and clear voice, which snapped Louise out of her melancholic gaze downwards to face Yuuto, who casted his eyes to the ground. She opened her mouth, but closed it again and remained silent to listen to another tale from his otherworldly life.

"In our case it depends on what kind of weapon you use. They're fourteen in total. Each one has its fair share of strengths and weaknesses. For example the Great Sword has the size of a full grown man. It's truly a behemoth of a blade, powerful but slow. Therefore you have to know what you're doing. To land a hit you have to predict the monster's movements. I'm not a very studious person. I prefer to take advantage of my speed, mobility and great reaction time. That's the reason for the Sword and Shield."

Yuuto made a pause to grab his sword from the back of his waist to hold it up in front of him. He angled it at various positions to let Louise get a look on the oversized knife before he tapped his shield a few times with the blunt back of the blade. Each time a loud, metallic clank similar to frying pan falling on the ground echoed through the empty corridor with only the pair of mage and hunter in sight. Yuuto returned the sword back to his holster and resumed his tale.

"To make up for the supposed lack of power, faster weapons utilise either toxins of monsters, which we call status ailments, or elements from their parts forged into the blade. Fire and water are also elements we employ. The other are ice and lightning," told the hunter his noble employer and turned his head to his right to see her eyes widen in surprise of another amazing revelation of his world. He smiled amused and waved his right hand nonchalantly to deny any outrageous overestimations.

"It's nothing amazing like mages freely controlling the elements or changing stone to metal. But what's important is that among our elements lies another particular one. It's the blast element, small explosions channelled to crack open monster shells."

This statement immediately perked up Louise and she rose up in excitement.

"What re-really?" said she agitated as she now stood at his side with her hands pressed against her chest and her head slightly leaning forward to the sitting hunter, who straightened his spine in response. He smiled at her face of restrained hope and questions and just tapped his right hand at his right side to ask her silently to sit down. Louise obediently calmed down and occupied her seat again.

"Don't get your hopes up, I'm not done talking. Aside the blast element there is also a status ailment simply called sleep. With a few slashes a monster will succumb to slumber. This allows us hunter to use the oldest tactic in the great book of monster hunting," he paused because Yuuto was not sure if such a book actually existed, "sleep bombing. That's why I had gunpowder in my item bag. We place some barrel bombs around the sleeping monster's face and boom," explained the hunter enthusiastically and simulated an imaginative explosion with his two hands.

"The gist out of all this is that nothing is inherently better or worse. It's what you make out of it that matters. My friends and I are all hunters, but still, each of us is different. Different armour, different weapons, different styles, different tactics, different strategies, different personalities, but no one is better or worse than the other. We're all different yet equal. And so are you and I, Louise."

After the end of another anecdote of his Yuuto leaned back from his hunched position into a straightened spine to encourage Louise at his right with a warm and welcoming smile, whose face was now painted and sculpted red from embarrassment and relief instead of shame and sadness.

"Thanks Yuuto. I really appreciate your effort and thought," responded Louise with a warm and angelic smile of her own before returning her expression to melancholy.

"But it does not change anything about current situation."

"You're right it doesn't change the fact that you're a mage," countered the hunter his master's depression with this confident statement. Louise could only stare dumbfounded before warping her face in slight anger and annoyance.

"Didn't you hear me before? I'm a failure of a mage. I don't need your -," burst it out of the Pinkhead, but she was cut short by Yuuto, who raised his right hand towards her in silent opposition.

"I heard you loud and clear, Louise. I seem to have confused you, so I think it's better to show you my point. If you allow it, please lend me your wand for a moment," after his unusual request raised his master's eyebrows he added, "Don't worry, I won't break it. You can trust me, Louise."

Yuuto could see her thoughts reflected in her face as she pondered about his proposition. First she was puzzled, but it quickly turned into thoughtful curiosity before she nodded in agreement with her face taking an expression full of trust. Her empty hand reached inside her cape and returned from the fabric darkness holding the wooden stick with her delicate fingers. She twirled the wand around into a reverse position before she presented it to her servant on her left. Yuuto grasped his left hand, which he felt was more reserved for blades, around the elongated magic instrument in a firm grip as he took the wand from its owner's tender hand. He then stood up from the bench and walked a few steps. When he reached the centre of the corridor in front of Louise he stroked an en garde stance with the tiny wooden stick as if he was holding his sword in front of him.

He remained still as if time had been frozen in the corridor of stone and marble. Only faint pulses of his rhythmic breath rippling through his body and the air let Louise know that he was readying his body and mind. A few intense moments passed before Yuuto made his move in a blink of eye and yet Louise saw every detail of his motion in her focused concentration. He first advanced forward with a small step while thrusting the wooden stick in his left hand. After reaching the greatest extension of his arm Yuuto suddenly snapped it down and up with joint flicks of shoulder, elbow and wrist to let the pointy end of the wand hum through an imaginary enemy with an x-shaped slash. Afterwards he arched the wand in wide circle above his head landing it behind his back before he finished his movement by twisting his whole body around to form a mighty spinning slash. Each time the pointy stick whipped around the hunter he let out powerful and loud war grunts.

"Hyuak … Ii-yeah … Hmpf … Nghraaah!"

Again Yuuto remained still, but this time in a forward facing hunch as he held the wooden stick out in stretched out arm off the side signalling the end of his demonstration. He then relaxed his tensed up body by taking a more casual stance. His arms fell flatly back to his waist as he exhaled deeply. Then he happily hopped back to his employer with a goofy grin on his face to return the wand to its rightful master.

"And did you see, what I saw?" asked Yuuto cheerfully the Pinkhead.

Bewildered Louise was left quite speechless as she received her magic instrument back in her hands, which she nervously sunk it back into the fabric shadow of her cape. She avoided the hunter's gaze by looking down to her delicate feet enveloped by her old, plain brown leather shoes , who were now pointing towards Yuuto's large, beige shoes of his lederhosen outfit. She was not sure if she should applaud her servant for his amazing display of a foreign form of swordsmanship or be direct about her inadequacy to recognise any relevance of it to her magical predicament. But then she remembered some of his earlier words: "You can trust me, Louise." So she decided to speak out her mind.

"Well, Yuuto. I may come off as rude, but I cannot see any connection between your martial exhibition and my magical impotency," answered the mage coyly before laying her confusion out in much simpler terms.

"To be honest, I didn't see anything."

"Exactly, Louise. That's the point," said the hunter with one half of his face forming a pleased grin and his left hand snapping its fingers towards her.

"I can't cast magic because I'm a commoner. No matter how many times I swing nothing will ever happen. But you're a noble, if you swing it something will happen. Not necessary what you want, but something none the less. The explosions are proof of it. They're an expression of your -"

"- magic. My magic …," completed Louise the train of thought of her servant lost in this epiphany as it finally dawned on her. She looked up to Yuuto, who greeted her with a familiar, warm smile.

"Yes, your very own magic. Giant sparks of your magical potential," affirmed the hunter while ruffling her smooth, pink hair.

"Sorry, that I had to make it more complicated than it should be, but I wanted you to come to this understanding on your own. 'Learning is worthwhile experience. Even if it hurts at first, you can only grow from it,' said a good friend of mine once."

"Again, thanks for your effort. But I am still clueless about what I should do now," said Louise while she straightened her hair from Yuuto's rough but gentle treatment.

"A simple question, how do you think did I get good with my sword, Louise?" interrupted Yuuto his master in her hair straightening process.

"What a trivial question! The obvious answer is that you of course trained with it a lot like any other swordsmen in Halkeginia," proclaimed the pink haired noble proudly and placed her right hand on her flat chest with a victorious smug on her face, which soon faded in a thoughtful frown as she figured Yuuto's next riddled question.

"Wait a moment! Are suggesting that I should learn my magic like a knight practices his sword swings?"

"Another question, have you ever tried to cast an explosion deliberately. By that I mean not in attempt to imitate your teacher or fellow students?"

This question electrified Louise's thoughts as she tried to dig up a moment in her sixteen years long life from her murky memories. She rested her small chin on her right hand, which was supported by her other arm. Her face was again frowning in thought, but no amount of facial or mental tensing availed an answer positive to the hunter's question.

"It seems the answer is actually a no, Yuuto," said Louise surprised by the realisation of this simple fact.

"I see. Then all you have to do from now on is to learn how to control your magic. Make the explosions your own; bend it to your will," proclaimed the hunter enthusiastically by waving his right arm dramatically slow in a wide arc while gazing at an unknown distance with his sparkling eyes.

"And what do you propose to archive such mastery?" questioned Louise the hunter with an arched eyebrow.

"Well, I think I have a plan," answered Yuuto cautiously and finally sat down on the bench beside his master. After taking his place he grabbed the thick bundle of paper between his hips and belt to show it Louise, who curiously stared at the map unfolding in front of her.

"This is a map I got from a friendly maid yesterday. I have only looked at it briefly, but as you can see, there is a forest nearby."

Yuuto traced his finger from the pentagon of the academy in a straight line to a dark, green cloud labelled 'Forest of Giants' in halkeginian, where he finished his motion by drawing an imaginary circle around it.

"The Forest of Giants?!" shrieked Louise in surprised horror.

"Why in Brimir's name do you want to tread on such dangerous ground? The trees of the forest are as big as the towers of the academy, hence the name. The treetops are said to be so dense that no light breaks through the canopy of the forest. People say that all kinds of sinister and vile creatures are creeping and crawling in the shadows," spluttered it out of her in pure panic.

"That sounds kind of nice," said Yuuto with a gleaming grin of excitement, to which his master responded with a fuming frown to express her dismissal. He hardened his expression again and continued with his explanation.

"Actually I wanted to ask you today for permission to go there, you know. I thought it would make a good hunting ground for the time being. That's why I also wanted to question you about the whereabouts of the library here, but as you can literary see, I got a map. Now with your predicament, the first thing I need to do there is to gather some wood."

"How is wood from a dark forest going to help me, Yuuto?" interjected Louise with a questioning look on her face.

"Simple, Louise. We're using the wood for some scarecrows," revealed the hunter to his still confused master and flicked his right index finger against her forehead. With a little wince she flinched back and closed her pink eyes while she grabbed the slightly reddened place with her delicate hands.

"And a quest board for me, actually. It's the reason I wanted to go there in the first place, you know."

"Scarecrows?" grumbled Louise as she recovered from the surprise attack of her cheeky servant.

"Who do you think is going to be your practice partner during training?" asked the hunter his employer while raising his eyebrow.

"Although a hunter can take some explosions here and there, no one right in their mind would want to play practice dummy with Louise, who can even make a Brachydios green with envy," thought Yuuto in silence, keeping the frightening praise for himself neither to upset or sadden his master.

"Just like you said earlier, mastery comes with practice!"

"And where are we going to act out your plan, my dear familiar?" asked the pink mage dripping with sarcasm.

"Isn't that obvious? We're going to train here, outside the castle's walls," answered Yuuto and illustrated his intentions by drumming the tip of his finger on a portion on the map just next to line of the pentagon representing the academy.

"You want me to train like a common swordsman for everyone to see?" burst it out of Louise hysterically in a high and nasal pitch.

"Yeah, anything wrong with that?" countered the hunter flatly and looked sternly into her eyes with a seriousness that startled Louise. Only a day had passed since she summoned Yuuto to her side and his jolly and amiable personality got stuck in her mind even, although his outburst of rage at the end of Madame Chevreuse's lesson was not long ago.

"Are you afraid? Are you going to run away?"

"Nn-no, I-I …," stuttered Louise trembling with her whole body as she gathered her thoughts on the matter. She looked down to the floor in distress. Her frowning forehead got glossy as miniscule pearls of sweat gathered there. Her heart and thought were racing. Her noble pride could not bear the humiliation of lowering herself to plebeian standards, but her mind already knew the cold, hard facts of simple logic. Still her heart struggled against such notion, but then something echoed through her thoughts. It was some words from Yuuto back at the beginning of this conversation.

"We're all different yet equal. And so are you and I, Louise."

She remembered it now vibrantly as his gentle voice from her memories reverberated through her mind. Louise knew that she was not a genius mage like her mother. In fact her studies at the Tristain Academy of Magic were an act of frustration and rebellion against her family, who constantly berated and belittled her for her magical incapacity. To assume she possessed the same talent as her mother was asinine and condescending to those, who worked for their power. Louise could not care less about commoners and their problems, but among them was Yuuto, who had earned her respect and more importantly her trust. He had trained for his proficiency of his profession and in that spirit she made her choice to follow his example.

She raised her head and faced determinedly Yuuto letting her burning pink eyes meet his deep azure gaze.

"No, I am not going to run away," declared Louise passionately in of her familiar servant, who nodded satisfied in response.

"Whatever it takes to master my magic I will gladly do it. Exposing me during training by my own will is thousand times better than getting humiliated in midst of a classroom by my own teachers."

"Good to hear that, Louise," said the hunter with a breath of pride in his master's resolve. He then held his left fist up waiting for Louise to reciprocate the gesture. Instead she at first stared blankly at his fist, then not knowing what to do she began to start fidgeting over this embarrassing moment until Yuuto noticed the problem at hand.

"Wait a minute. Don't tell you don't know what a fist bump is?"

Instead of answering the question Louise shyly shook her red tinged head.

"Well, then let me teach you a bit from my culture," responded Yuuto in a relaxed tone, which concealed his considerable surprise to something so natural to him and his friends.

"It's a simple gesture. You and your friend form a fist and knock them against each other at your knuckles. Although sometime you do it with the backside of your hand. Regardless it's sign togetherness and camaraderie. I do it often with Ed after finishing a hunting quest, you know. Or getting on a same page on a matter with someone else, for example you, Louise"

After uttering his last words he held his left fist up again for another try. This time the noble pinkhead did not miss her timing and responded accordingly. She clenched the fingers of her right hand into meaty ball and slowly reached her arm out to connect the fronts of their fist. As her knuckles silently touched Yuuto's she noticed how tiny her hand and her entire frame were compared to the hunter's imposing body. At this moment she understood the meaning of this gesture.

"I see, two people of different size can meet upfront yet unite equal fashion for a moment," remarked Louise her cultural discovery in silence before she vocalised to her familiar a more urgent thought.

"What do we do now? I do not think there is enough time for walk into the forest today."

"I think about spending the rest of today in the library to brush up on the ecosystem here," proposed the hunter thoughtfully, but was alerted by large and loud rumbling of his stomach, which reminded his head to not neglect the rest of his body.

"But I think it's also a good time for a nice and delicious meal."

"That is an excellent idea," agreed Louise happily and raised her right arm in the air proudly presenting her tiny fist again.

Yuuto smirked at the eager nature of his master and cheerfully reciprocated the gesture with a big, goofy grin on his face. And just like every time Louise's mood warmed up in reaction to the now familiar bright smile, which also made her heart skip a beat each time. As her blood flushed her face she hastily stood up to cover it and made her way to the dining hall of the academy in a rush. In response Yuuto just commanded his legs to catch up with Louise while he shouted from behind for her wait. Apart yet together the pair of hunter and mage left the stone hall for some food.

* * *

Writer's comment:

I finally finished this chapter. Sorry that it took so long. I was really busy the last two months. The chapter also was not easy or enjoyable to write actually. Most of it was exposition and setup for leading into the actual plot.

Aside from that I learned that writing natural dialogue is quite hard without sounding cheesy.

Just as always comment and criticise in the reviews. Every opinion is welcomed.

Happy Holidays and see you next year.


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